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THE 



PEOPLE'S 



PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE; 



OR 



THE LIFE 



OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



OF 



OHIO. 



BY RICHARD HILDRETH. 




BOSTON: 
WEEKS, JORDAN AND COMPANY', 

1840. 



CMt 



Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 

By Weeks, Jordan & Co. 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



TUTTLE, DENNETT AND CHISHOLm's 

POWER PRESS, 

No. 17 School StiTfiet, Boston. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The materials for the following " Life" have been 
chiefly derived from a w^ork published in Cincinnati 
in 1824, entitled " A historical narrative of the civil 
and military services of Major General William H. 
Harrison, and a vindication of his character and con- 
duct as a statesman, a citizen, and a soldier ; witli a 
detail of his negotiations and wars with the Indians 
until the final overthrow of the celebrated chief 
Teciimthe, and his brother the Prophet. The whole 
written and compiled from original and authentic 
documents furnished by many of the most respectable 
characters in the United States; by Moses Dawson." 
This- is a thick octavo of nearly five hundred closely 
printed pages, containing many state papers, letters, 
and public documents, and furnishing a great mass of 
facts, but very ill arranged, and running frequently into 
a tedious and confused minuteness. This book has 
long since been out of print, and to the general 
reader it could never have been a very inviting per- 
formance. 

Considerable use has also been made of a " Me- 
moir of the public services of William Henry Harri- 
son, of Ohio, by James Hall ;" published at Phila- 
delphia in 1836. That work has considerable merit, 
but seems to have been hastily compiled ; its arrange- 
ment is very defective ; the main narrative is too 
much overlaid by unimportant details, and it fails to 



4 



Jeave any clear and distinct impression on the reader's 
mind. 

The present narrative presents a brief and compre- 
hensive, and it is hoped a clear and correct view of the 
Vicars and negotiations on our Northwestern frontier, 
from the adoption of the federal constitution till the 
close of the last war with Great Britain, by which 
event the power of the Indian tribes in that region 
was so broken as to leave them no longer a formida- 
ble enemy. This is a part of our history fuli of in- 
terest, though little known. These events are essen- 
tially connected with the life of General Harrison, 
and form indeed a principal part of it. 

Brought forward as that gentleman has been once 
and again as a prominent candidate for the presiden- 
tial chair, by supporters not less respectable for iheir 
numbers than entitled to regard for their patriotism, 
sound judgment, and knowledge of popular sentiment, 
some curiosity must naturally be felt to know the his- 
tory of his political services. His retirement from 
public life for several years previous to his nomina- 
tion as a presidential candidate, has thrown that his- 
tory into the back ground, — and it is only by some 
such memoir as the present, that it can be brought 
out again to the public recollection. 

In the compilation of this little work, the author has 
not aimed at a panegyric, but simply at a clear and 
candid statement of facts ; a statement, it may be ob- 
served, which seems to prove that General Harrison 
possesses feelings, principles, and traits of character 
such as qualify him in a peculiar manner, to fill with 
honor to himself and advantage to his country, the 
high station for which he has been nominated. * 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I 



Harrison's birch, parentage and education — He is commis- 
sioned as an ensign in the United States Army — State of 
things on the !>forthwcstern frontier — St. Clair's defeat 
— Harrison is promoted lo a Lieutenancy — Is appointed 
aid to General Wayne — Operations of Wayne's Army — 
Harrison is appointed to the command of fort Washing- 
ton — His marriage, t 

CHAPTER II. 

Harrison resigns his commission in the Army — Is appomt- 
ed Secretary of the Northwestern Territory — Is chosen 
delegate to Congress — His Land Bill— Is appointed Gov- 
ernor of Indiana Teriitory — His jurisdiction and powers 
— Indian relations — Harrison's principles and method of 
Administration, 22 

CHAPTER III. 

Tecumlhe and the Prophet— The Prophet's interview with 
Harrison — Treaty of fort Wayne— Dissatisfaction of Te- 
cumthe and the Prophet — Tecumthe's visit to Vincennes 
— Extract from a message of Governor Harrison to the 
Legislature of Indiana, ...... 34 

CHAPTER IV. 

Prosecution for Slander— Aggressions of the Prophet — 
March to Tippecanoe— Battle of Tippecanoe, 



6 



CHAPTER V. 

War with Great Britain— Circumstances which led to the 
appointment of Harrison to command the Northwestern 
Army— Extent of his authority— Difficulties to be en- 
countered — Harrison's influence with the Militia — Anec- 
dotes—Plan of the Campaign— Obstacles in the way — 
Harrison recommends the construction of a fleet on lake 
Erie— Battle of the river Raisin— End of the Campaign 
— Expeditions against the Indians, .... 69 

CHAPTER VI. 

Second campaign of the Northwestern Army— Siege and 
defence of fort Meigs— Second siege of fort Meigs — 
Siege of fort Stevenson— Perry's victory— Embarkation 
of the Army— Battle of the Thames— End of the cam- 
paign — Harrison resigns his commission, ... 94 

CHAPTER VII. 

Harrison is appointed a commissioner to treat with the In- 
dians—Is elected to Congress — He demands an invesu- 
gation of his conduct as commander of the Northwestern 
army — His militia bill — Pensions — General Jackson and 
the Seminole War— He is elected to the Senate of Ohio 
— Is chosen a Senator of the United States— Is appointed 
Miiuster to Columbia, • . . . • . 109 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Emploj^ments of General Harrison since his recall from 
Columbia — His person and character — His nomination 
for the Presidency — His re -nomination — Ffis letter to 
Harmar Denny — He is brought forward as the Whig 
Candidate by the Convention at Harri&burg, . . 116 



1. 1 F E 

OF 

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 



CHAPTER I. 



Harrison's Birth, Parentage and Education. — He is eommission" 
ed as an Ensign ia the United States' Army. — State of things 
on the Northwestern Frontier. — St. Clair's defeat.— Harrison: 
is promoted to a Lieutenancy. — Is appointed aid to General 
Wayne. — Operations of Wayne's Army. — Harrison is appoint" 
ed to the command of Fort Wasliington. — His Marriage. 

William Henry Harrison was born on the 
ninth day of February, 1773, in the county of 
Charles City, in Virginia, at a place called Berk- 
ley, on the banks of the James River, some twen- 
tyfive miles below Richmond. He was the third 
and youngest son of Benjamin Harrison, a distin- 
guished citizen of Virginia, lineally descended 
from that General Harrison, who made so conspic- 
uous a figure in the English civil wars, and who 
held a high command in the armies of the Com- 
monwealth. . 

Benjamin Harrison, was one of the represen- 
tatives of the "Old Dominion," in the Continen- 
tal Congress, during the years 1774, 1775, and 
1776. He was the brother-in-law of Peyton Ran- 
dolph, the first president of Congress ; and on tJie 



8 



death of that distinguished patriot, it was the de- 
sire of many of the southern members that Mr 
Harrison should succeed his brother-in-law, as the 
presiding officer over that body. But he was well 
aware of the existence of strong sectional feelings 
and prejudices both in Congress and the country 
at large. He was sensible of the danger of irri- 
tating those prejudices, and was desirous of im- 
proving the opportunity now afforded, to conciliate 
the northern tnembers, and to secure their confi- 
dence. Accordingly he used all his influence on 
behalf of John Hancock of Massachusetts, and 
succeeded in procuring for him a unanimous 
vote. 

Mr Harrison was Chairman of the Committee 
of the whole House, when the Declaration of In- 
dependence was finally agreed to ; and his signa- 
ture is annexed to that celebrated document. In 
the year 1777, having been elected to the House 
of Delegates of the state of Virginia, he was chosen 
Speaker of that body, which office he continued 
to fill till 1782, when he was elected Governor of 
the State. All these important trusts he discharg- 
ed to the entire satisfaction of his fellow citizens. 

Benjamin Harrison did not accumulate a for- 
tune in the public service. On the contrary he 
expended his own private means, and left his chil- 
dren little other inheritance except his example, 
and the friendship of many of his distinguished 
fellow-patriots. At the death of his father, Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison was under age. Robert 
Morris, the celebrated financier, at his father's re- 
quest, had consented to act as his guardian. He 
had determined to follow the profession of medi- 
cine, and was diligently pursuing his studies, with 
that object, at Hampden Sidney college, when the 



9 



ravages committed by the Indians on our north- 
western frontier, and the opportunity afTorded of 
serving his country in that dangerous quarter, in- 
duced him to adopt the idea of joining the army 
under General St. Clair, wh'ch had been raised 
for the purpose of bringing the Indians to terms. 
His resolution with respect to this matter, was 
strongly opposed by his guardian. But it was ap- 
proved by General Washington, then president of 
the United States, who had been the intimate 
friend of his father, and who gave him a commis- 
sion of ensiorn in the first recrlment of United 
States artillery, then stationed at Fort Washing- 
ton on the Ohio, near the present site of the city 
of Cincinnati. Thus, at the early age of nine- 
teen, William Henry Harrison became intimately 
associated with the fortunes of the Northwestern 
Territory, and entered upon a long career of pub- 
lic service, in that section of the country. Before 
we follow him thither, it will be well to take a gen- 
eral view of the state of affairs at that time upon 
the northwestern border. 

During the war of the Revolution, Great Britain 
succeeded in persuading almost all the Indian 
tribes along the whole frontier, to raise the toma- 
hawk against the people of the United States. 
Shortly after the close of that war, several of these 
tribes were induced to enter into treaties of peace. 
But the Indians northwest of the Ohio, still retain- 
ed all their former hostility, and continued to carry 
on a murderous anddesolatinor war, directed chief- 
ly against the western border of Pennsylvania, and 
the few scattered settlements which had been 
formed within the Northwestern Territory. 

The principal among these tribes, were the 
Miamies^ whose various bands occupied, or claim- 



10 



€d, an immense extent of territory, including all 
that part of Ohio, west of the Scioto, almost all of 
Indiana, and a large portion of Illinois. Of this 
immense territory, however, the greater part was 
entirely destitute of inhabitants. The various 
bands or tribes, into which the Miamies were sub- 
divided, possessed numerous villages on the Scioto, 
and about the head waters of the Great and the 
Little Miami. There were also many villages up- 
on the Maumee, and its tributaries, and along the 
course of the Wabash, as low down as Vincennes. 
But the whole country, for a great extent, border- 
ing on the river Ohio, was entirely destitute of in- 
habitants, and was used merely as a hunting 
ground. 

Next to the Miames, may be ranked the Hurons 
or Wi/andots, who occupied the southern shore of 
Lake Erie, including all that territory now known as 
the Connecticut Reserve; a small tribe, but enjoy- 
ing a high reputation among the northwestern In- 
dians, on account of the desperate valor of its 
warriors. 

In addition to these two tribes, there were also 
within the present limits of Ohio, and engaged in 
this war against the United States, the Delawares, 
or Leni Lenapes, who had gradually retreated be- 
fore the white man, from their original seats on the 
banks of the river Delaware ; and the ShawneeSf 
who, about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
had fled or emigrated from Georgia or Florida — 
driven out probably by some stronger tribe, — and 
had sought an asylum north of the Ohio. 

Besides the four tribes above enumerated, the 
Chippevvas, Ottowas, and Potowatomies, who oc- 
cupied the peninsula of Michigan, also took a part 
in the hostilities carried on against the United 



11 



States ; and these seven tribes united, were able to 
brinor into the field a very formidable force. 

It was generally believed, at that time, and no 
doubt it was the fact, that the hostility of these 
tribes against the United States was stimulated, 
and that ammunition, arms, and other means of 
carrying on the war were supplied by the British 
authorities in Canada, through the commandants 
of the forts at Detroit, Chicago, Mackinac, and 
other posts within the limits of the United States, 
which according to the provisions of the treaty of 
peace, ought long since to have been surrendered, 
but which were still kept possession of by British 
troops. 

The pretence or apology, for keeping possession 
of these posts, was founded upon the allegation, 
that the United States, or rather the individual 
States of the union, had neglected to perform that 
part of the treaty, which guaranteed the removal 
of all legal obstacles in the way of collecting debts 
due to British subjects, which had been contract- 
ed previous to the war. As the whole value of 
these posts consisted in the influence which the 
possessors of them were able to exert over the 
neighborincr Indians, there is little doubt that the 
British government, by way of enforcing their de- 
mand on the subject of British debts, used every 
means in their power, to make the people of the 
United States/ee/ the necessity of obtaining their 
surrender. 

The hostilities of these northwestern tribes, 
whether stimulated by the British, or originat- 
ing in their own love of war, became at length 
so annoying, that very soon after the re-organiza- 
tion of the government by the adoption of the fed- 
eral constitution, the president resolved upon vig- 



12 



orous measures. In the year 1790, General Har- 
raer, at the head of about fifteen hundred men, 
partly regulars, but principally militia, was sent 
against the northwestern Indians. He marched 
into the interior of what is now the state of Ohio, 
and succeeded in destroying most of the Indian 
towns on the Scioto. But in two engagements 
between bodies of the Indians, and detachments 
of Harmer's troops, the Americans were defeated 
with considerable loss. Harmer found it necessa- 
ry to retreat ; and in a short time, the incursions 
and depredations of the Indians along the frontier, 
became as troublesome as ever. 

This unfortunate state of affairs was brought be- 
fore Congress, and an act was passed increasing 
the regular army, and enabling the President to 
raise two thousand men, under the denomination 
of levies, to serve airainst the Indians for six 
months. It was resolved to prosecute the war 
with vigor, and General St. Clair, at that time gov- 
ernor of the Northwestern Territory, was appointed 
Commander-in-chief. 

The enlistment, however, and other preparations 
for the campaign went on but slowly ; and the be- 
ginning of September had arrived before St. Clair 
was able to commence his march into the Indian 
country. He advanced cautiously, opening a road, 
and building forts at convenient distances. In this 
way he had arrived within about fifteen miles of the 
Miami villages, near the head waters of the Wa- 
bash, when on the 4th of November, 1791, about 
half an hour before sun-rise, he was suddenly at- 
tacked in his camp by a large body of Indians. 
The assailants pressed forward with great rapidity. 
Firing from the ground, or the shelter afforded by 
the trees, and scarcely seen, except when spring- 



13 



ing from one covert to another, they advanced in 
front and upon both flanks, close upon the Ameri- 
can lines, and up to- the very mouths of the field 
pieces. The militia who were posted in front, 
were soon broken, and falling back upon the regu- 
lar troops, threw them also into disorder. The 
officers, most of whom had seen service, exerted 
themselves to rally and re-form the men, and they 
partially succeeded. The Indians were twice 
driven back at the point of the bayonet; but while 
they were pressed in one direction, their fire was 
poured in from every other with fatal effect ; and 
and the whole army was soon thrown into confu- 
sion. A most disorderly retreat ensued. The 
Indians followed the flying troops for four miles, 
and then returned to plunder the camp. The ar- 
my suffered most severely. Out of fourteen hun- 
dred men engaged, five hundred and thirty were 
killed and three hundred and sixty wounded. 
This battle was planned and commanded, on the 
part of the Indians by Meshecunnaqua, the Little 
Turtle, a celebrated Miami warrior, and Buckon- 
gehelas, head chief of the Delawares. 

Young Harrison, as soon as he had received his 
commission of Ensign, hastened to join his regi- 
ment at Fort Washington, where he arrived short- 
ly after the defeat of St. Clair's army. That de- 
feat had been wholly unexpected, and produced 
the greatest consternation throughout the whole 
country. The defence of the frontier against the 
Indians, flushed with victory, and now more au- 
dacious than ever, devolved on a little handful of 
men. Winter was setting in; and the hardships 
to be anticipated by those stationed in these dis- 
tant posts were so great, that Harrison, young, 
slender, and apparently of a feeble constitution, 
2 



14 



was advised by his companions to resign his com- 
niission, and so escape a service for which his or- 
ganization, and early habits seemed to render him 
unfit. This advice was at once rejected ; and the 
energy, boldness, and capacity of the young officer 
were soon put to the test. The first duty confided 
to him, was the command of an escort having 
charge of a train of pack horses, bound to Fort 
Hamilton on the great Miami, some twenty or 
thirty miles north of Fort Washington. This du- 
ty was difficult and perilous, requiring great expos- 
ure, constant watchfulness, and more prudence 
and sagacity than is ordinarily to be expected 
from a youth of nineteen. However, the service 
was successfully performed, and in so able a man- 
ner, as to attract the attention, and elicit the ap- 
plause of General St. Clair, the commander-in- 
chief. 

At this time the vice of intemperance prevailed 
to a great extent among the officers of the army. 
The extreme hardships of the service, and their 
removal from all the comforts as well as the re- 
straints of civilized life and domestic intercourse, 
led many promising officers to indulge in excesses, 
which proved ruinous to their character, and de- 
structive to their health. Young Harrison had the 
good sense to see and avoid these dangers; and 
he now laid the foundation of those habits of 
temperance to which he ever after adhered, and 
which have enabled him to support the extreme 
fatigues of border warfare ; and have given him 
a degree of health and vigor which few men of his 
age enjoy. 

In 1792, he was promoted to the rank of lieu- 
tenant. In 1793, he joined the new army under 
the command of General Wayne, which had been 



i 



15 

raised for the purpose of prosecuting the war 
asfainst the Indians. This war had now grown 
into great importance. The defeat of St. Chiir 
had produced a general sensation ; and it had 
become highly necessary that some decisive steps 
should be taken for bringing the struggle to a 
close. For this purpose General Washington had 
selected Wayne as St. Clair's successor, — an offi- 
cer, who by his impetuous valor, had acquired 
durin the revolutionary war, the title of Mad 
Antliony ; but whose discretion and sagacity 
were equal to his courage. 

In May 1792, General Wayne having been fur- 
nished with instructions, in which it was emphat- 
ically declared " that another defeat would be 
inexpressibly ruinous to the reputation of the 
government," proceeded to Pittsburg for the pur- 
pose of organizing his army. By the laws which 
Congress had enacted on this occasion, an entirely 
new arrangement was to be made. The army 
was to consist of one Major General, four Brigadier 
Generals, and their respective staffs, the commis- 
sioned officers, and five thousand one hundred and 
twenty non-commissioned officers and privates, 
the whole to be called " the Legion of the United 
States." St. Clair's army having been almost 
wholly destroyed, the Legion, which never reached 
more than half the number of which it was 
intended to consist, had to be recruited almost 
wholly anew ; after which the men were to be 
disciplined and instructed in their duty. This 
required time ; and it was the 28th of November, 
before Wayne was able to move from Pittsburg. 
He descended the Ohio only about twentytwo 
miles, and then encamped for the winter. Being 
within striking distance of the enemy, the greatest 



16 



watchfulness was necessary to keep the army in a 
condition for action, and great efforts were requir- 
ed to teach the troops self-reliance, and to prepare 
thera to face the foe. This position, which was 
called Legionville, was strongly fortified and every 
precaution was taken to guard against surprise. 

In April, 1793, General Wayne broke up his 
encampment at Legionville, and conveyed his 
army in boats to Fort Washington, a post which 
occupied, as we have already mentioned, the pre- 
sent site of the city of Cincinnati. Here Lieu- 
tenant Harrison joined the Legion. His spirit, 
enterprise, and sagacity soon attracted the at- 
tention of General Wayne, who appointed him 
one of his aids-de-camp, in which laborious and 
difficult post he served throughout the war. The 
army of Wayne remained the whole summer in 
the vicinity of Washington, waiting for supplies 
and reinforcements, and preparing for the ensuing 
campaign. In the month of October, General 
Wayne took up a position about eighty miles from 
Fort V/ashington, on the western branch of the 
Miami, and near the head waters of that stream. 
This position was strongly fortified and called 
Greenville^ and here the army encamped for the 
winter. 

On the 23d of December, eight companies of 
infantry and a body of artillery were detached to 
take possession of the ground upon which St. 
Clair had been defeated. The bones of the slain 
were collected, and interred with military honors; 
and a strong post called Fort Recovery, was 
erected on the battle ground. In the general 
order issued by the Commander-in-chief Lieuten- 
ant Harrison is mentioned, as particularly entitled 
to commendation for his " voluntary aid and ser- 
^•^-es" on this occasion. 



17 

The next summer Fort Recovery was warmly 
attacked by a large body of Indians. Thoncrh 
repulsed several times, they still renewed the 
assault, till finally they were obliged to retreat 
with great loss. About the middle of July, 1794, 
havinor been joined by a body of mounted militia 
from Kentucky, General Wayne pushed on seven- 
ty miles in advance of Greenville and established 
himself at Grand Glaise, in the very heart of the 
Indian territory. The British had lately erected 
a fort in this vicinity, probably with the design of 
encouraging and supporting the Indians ; — f )r 
the difficulties and disputes between Great Britain 
and the United States had now reached such a 
point, that a war between the two countries 
seemed inevitable. In his despatches to the 
Secretary of War, General Wayne speaks of the 
country which he had now occupied, as the 
" grand emporium of the hostile Indians." *' The 
very extensive and highly cultivated fields and 
gardens show," he observes, " the work of many 
hands. The margins of those beautiful rivers, the 
Miami of the lake,* and the Au Glaise, appear 
like one continued village for a number of miles 
above and below this place ; nor have I ever before 
seen such immense fields of corn in any part 
of America, from Canada to Florida." 

Having erected a strong work, to which he 
gave the^nauje of Fort Defiance, at the confluence 
of the Maumee and the Au Glaise, the two rivers 
above described ; and being now prepared to 
strike a final blow,— agreeably to his instructions, 
by which he was strictly commanded to settle the 
difficulties with the Indians by negotiation if pos- 
sible, — he made the enemy a proposal of terms. 

* Now more generally known as the Maumee. 



18 



This proposal was rejected, notwithstanding 
the advice of that celebrated warrior the Little 
Turtle, who had commanded at St. Clair's defeat, 
and who recommended its acceptance. " We 
have beaten the enemy twice," he said, *' under 
separate commanders. We cannot expect the 
jsame good fortune always. The long knives are 
now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night 
and the day are alike to him. During all the 
time that he has been marching on our villages, 
notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young 
men, we have never been able to surprise him. 
Think well of it. There is something whispers 
me it would be prudent to listen to his offers of 
peace." This speech was delivered in a council 
of the Indians held the night before that battle, in 
which their forces were completely routed. 

By this time the army had advanced into the 
inmiediate vicinity of the rapids of the Maumee, 
near which was the newly erected British fort, 
and where the main body of the Indian forces was 
assembled, under the command of Blue Jacket, a 
war chief of the Shawnees. On the morning of 7 
the 20th of August, General Wayne continued his | 
march down the river, uncertain whether the 
Indians would decide for peace or war. After 
proceeding about five miles, the advanced corps 
received so severe a fire from the Indians secreted 
in the woods and grass as to compel them to re- 
treat. The legion was immediately formed in two 
lines, the right resting on the river, and the left 
extending into a thick and clo.se forest which 
formed the principal part of the battle field. For 
a considerable distance in front, the ground was 
covered with fallen timber uprooted probably in 
some tornado, amid which it was impossible lor 



. 19 

cavalry to act, and which afforded the enemy a 
most favorable covert. The Indians were formed 
in three lines within supporting distance of each 
other, extending nearly two miles at right angles 
with the river. 

The mounted volunteers under General Scott, 
were ordered to make a circuit and to gain the 
right flank of the enemy ; while the troops of the 
first line, who were formed in open order, were 
commnnded to advance with trailed arms, rouse 
the Indians from their coverts at the point of the 
bayonet, and as soon as they began to retreat, to 
pour in a close fire upon their backs, and to follow 
up with a brisk charge, so as to give them no 
opportunity of re-loading their rifles. 

This idea of charging the Indians, and so 
bringing them at once to close quarters, was 
wholly new, and original, with General Wayne. 
It proved entirely successful ; and has now become 
the established method of Indian warfare. The 
first line of the Legion advanced with such rapidi- 
ty, driving the enemy before them, that the other 
corps of the army had little opportunity to take a 
part in the engagement. In the course of one hour 
thelndians were driven more than two miles through 
the thick woods above described. The Indians 
engaged were thought to exceed two thousand ; 
while the infantry of the first line fell shortof nine 
hundred. The enemy soon abandoned themselves 
to flight, and dispersed in every direction. The 
contest terminated under the guns of the British 
fort. In his official account of the battle, General 
Wayne mentions with honor, his " faithful and gal- 
lant aid-de-camp. Lieutenant Harrisoih as having 
rendered the most essential service by communi- 
cating orders in every direction, and by his con- 



20 



duct and bravery, exciting the troops to press for 
victory." 

The army remained for three days on the banks 
of the Maumee, near the field of battle, during 
which time the houses and corn-fields, for a con- 
siderable distance above and below the British fort, 
were wasted and burnt — among the rest, the 
houses, stores, and other property of Col. M'Kee, 
the British Indian agent, who was regarded as the 
principal stimulator of the war. Of all this de- 
struction inflicted on their friends, the British gar- 
rison were obliged to remain tacit spectators. The 
troops afterwards returned by easy marches to 
Grand Glaise, laying waste the villages and corn- 
fields of the Indians in every direction. 

The spirit of the Indians was broken by the 
decisive victory obtained over them by General 
Wayne, and by the severe losses which they had 
suflfered in consequence. The conduct also of the 
commander of the British fort, in declining to take 
any open part in their behalf, had disgusted many 
of the principal warriors. The celebrated chiefs, 
Little Turtle, and Buckongehelas, thenceforward 
renounced the British connection, and became the 
advocates of peace with the United States. On the 
first of January, 1795, the Indians commenced a 
negotiation with General Wayne ; and the news of 
his victory, which liad reached London in Novem- 
ber, is said to have had considerable effect in in- 
ducing the British government to accede to the 
propositions of Mr Jay, who was then employed 
in negotiating the celebrated treaty which bears 
his name, — among other provisions of which was 
included the surrender of the Western posts. The 
negotiation with the Indians was considerably pro- 
tracted, but in August, 1795, a treaty of peace 



21 



was finally concluded at Greenville, by which the 
United States obtained the cession of considerable 
tracts of land, and secured quiet and security to 
the border settlements. 

These events have been related with the more 
particularity, in order that the reader may have an 
opportunity to compare the conduct of General 
Harrison when subsequently acting as commander- 
in-chief, in the same regions, with that of those 
celebrated officers under whom he had previously 
served in a subaltern capacity. Such a compari- 
son candidly made, will place his conduct and 
services in a highly favorable point of view. 

Shortly after the close of the campaign, Lieute- 
nant Harrison was promoted to the rank of cap- 
tain, and was placed in command of Fort Wash- 
ington, under circumstances, which show the con- 
fidence reposed by General Wayne, in his talents 
and discretion. At this period, certam agents of 
the French government were zealously employed 
in Kentucky in attempting to get up an invasion 
of Louisiana ; and thus to embroil the United 
States with Spain, and force it into an alliance 
with France. This project was very alluring to the 
Kentuckians, who had long entertained the most 
violent hostility towards the Spaniards, on account 
of their refusing to the United States the free 
navigation of the Mississippi. The government at 
Washington felt great apprehensions, lest the Ken- 
tuckians might be inveigled into some acts of hos- 
tility against the Spanish government. General 
Wavne was trusted with the management of this 
affair ; and among other precautions he placed 
Captain Harrison in command of Fort Washing- 
ton, with extensive discretionary powers to be 
used as circumstances might require. Among 



22 



other things, he was instructed to keep General 
Wayne advised of all movements, and to prevent 
the passage down the river of boats laden with 
military stores, belonging to the French agents. 

About this time the posts at the Northwest, 
which had been so long held back by the British, 
were at length surrendered to the United States, 
under Jay's treaty. The troops intended to occu- 
py these posts, together with their provisions and 
warlike stores, were sent to Fort Washington, 
thence to be forwarded through the wilderness. 
Captain Harrison was charged with this whole 
service, which he discharged with a prudence, 
ability and intelligence, which justified the high 
confidence reposed in him by the Commander-in 
chief. 

While in command of Fort Washington, Cap- 
tain Harrison married a daughter of John Cleves 
Symmes, the celebrated founder of the Miami set- 
tlements, a lady in whom he has ever found a 
faithful and aflfectionate companion. 



CHAPTER II. 



Harrison resigns his commission in the Army. — Is appointed 
Secretaiy of the Northwestern Territory. -ris chosen Delegate 
to Congress.— -His iand bill. — Is appointed Governor of the 
Indiana Territory. — His jurisdiction and powers. — Indian re- 
lations. — Harrison's principles and method of Administration. 

On the death of General Wayne, in 1797, Cap- 
tain Harrison resigned his commission in the army, 
and received his first civil appointment, that of 



23 

Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and ex- 
officio, Lieutenant Governor. General St. Clair 
still remained Governor of the Territory. 

Mr Harrison's conduct as Secretary was so 
much approved, and so favorable was the impres- 
sion made upon his fellow-citizens by his charac- 
ter and manners, that the next year, when the 
Northwestern Territory entered the second grade 
of Territorial Government, (according to the sys- 
tem which then prevailed,) and the inhabitants 
became entitled to elect a Delegate to Congress, 
he was chosen to fill that office. The opposing 
candidate was Arthur St. Clair, Jr., the son of the 
governor. 

What recommended him in particular to the 
choice of his fellow citizens upon this occasion, 
was the stand he had taken, and the exertions he 
had made, against the system of disposing of the 
public lands which then prevailed ; a system high- 
ly detrimental to the interests of the new settlers, 
and which retarded the population, and checked 
the prosperity of the Territory. By the law as it 
then stood, the public lands could not be pur- 
chased in tracts of less than four thousand acres ; 
and as the minimum price was, at that time, two 
dollars per acre, it was utterly beyond the means 
of the vast majority of the new settlers to become 
possessors of land by an original purchase from 
the government. They were driven to the neces- 
sity of buying at second hand, and at great disad- 
vantage. 

The injustice and impolicy of this exclusive 
system had struck Mr Harrison very forcibly. His 
daily observation satisfied him that it was adverse 
to the interests both of the government and the 
settlers ; and the stand he had taken upon this 



24 



subject pointed him out to his fellow citizens as 
a proper person to represent them on the floor of 
Congress, and to bring this question, in which 
they were so deeply interested, to the notice of the 
National Legislature. , 

Nor did he disappoint the hopes and expecta- 
tions of his constituents. Soon after he had taken 
his seat, he offered a resolution for the appoint- 
ment of a committee with instructions to inquire 
into and report, on the existing mode of selling 
the public lands. He was himself appointed the 
chairman of that committee, the only instance, it 
is believed, in which that honor has been confer- 
red upon a Territorial Delegate. 

■ The committee, in due time, made a report, ac- 
companied by a bill, providing that the public 
lands should be sold thereafter in alternate half 
and quarter sections ; that is, in alternate tracts of 
320 and 160 acres. This report, in the prepara- 
tion of which Mr Harrison had been aided by Mr 
Gallatin, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, 
produced a powerful sensation, and when it came 
up for consideration, led to a warm debate. The 
reasonableness, justice, propriety, and good sense, 
of the modification proposed by Mr Harrison, is 
now so obvious that it will be acknowledged by 
all ; yet at that time it was most violently opposed 
by many able men and leading politicians. The 
report was zealously attacked by Mr Cooper of 
New York, and Mr Lee of Virginia; but it was 
ably defended by Mr Harrison, who exhibited in 
his speech a perfect acquaintance with the whole 
subject. He fully exposed the folly and injustice 
of the old system, and demonstrated that it could 
benefit nobody except the wealthy monopolist, or 
the adventurous land speculator ; while the great 



25 



mass of the people by whom the country was to 
be settled, would be driven by this law to the ne- 
cessity of purchasing at an advanced price, and 
at second hand ; or what was more probable and 
more to be dreaded, would be reduced to the con- 
dition of a tenantry, dependant upon a few wealthy 
proprietors, instead of being themselves free-hold- 
ers of the soil. 

Mr Harrison's eloquence and arguments pre- 
vailed ; and the bill was carried triumphantly 
through the House. But in the Senate, where 
the spirit of opposition to all popular ameliorations 
of the law, is always most powerful, a very strong 
opposition was made to it ; and finally a commit- 
tee of conference upon the subject was mutually 
appointed by the House and Senate. The con- 
ferrees on the part of the House, were Messrs 
Gallatin and Harrison ; on the part of the Senate, 
Messrs Ross and Brown. The conference finally 
resulted in a compromise, according to which the 
public lands were to be thereafter sold in alternate 
whole and half sections ; that is, in alternate 
tracts of 640 and 320 acres. This, though far 
from being all that Mr Harrison and his constitu- 
ents could have desired, was a very great improve- 
ment upon the old system ; and as about this time 
the tide of emigration began to flow pretty rapidly 
upon Ohio, the influence of this law upon the 
character and fortunes of her inhabitants must 
have been exceedingly great. 

Another important bill was subsequently intro- 
duced into the House by Mr Harrison, providino" 
for an improvement in the method of locatino- mili- 
tary land warrants, the mode then in operation be- 
ing very objectionable in several particulars. This 
bill also became a law. 



26 



At this session a bill was passed for dividing 
the Northwestern Territory. By this division, 
what is now the State of Ohio was made a Terri- 
tory by itself, and the remainder of the North- 
western Territory received the name of Indiana, 
and was erected into a separate government. Mr 
Harrison served in Congress but one year, having 
been appointed, at the end of the session, Gover- 
nor of the Indiana Territory. 

This vast tract of country, including what now 
constitutes the states of Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
gan and the territory of Wisconsin, contained at 
that time but three principal white settlements, 
separated from each other by extensive intervening 
forests. The first of these settlements, known as 
Clark's grant, was at the falls of the Ohio, nearly 
opposite Louisville, where is now the flourishing 
town of New Albany. The second was at Vin- 
cennes, on the Wabash, distant from the first 
more than a hundred miles. The third was the 
French settlement along the banks of the Missis- 
sippi, in the tract now known as the American 
Bottom, extending from Cahokia, nearly opposite 
St. Louis, some thirty or forty miles down the 
Mississippi, to Kaskaskia. This settlement was 
distant two hundred miles from Vincennes. 

The country to the north of these settlements 
was in the possession of the Indian tribes above 
described, among whom the Miamies were the 
most powerful ; and the intervening tracts served 
as a sort of common hunting ground to the In- 
dians and the whites. 

The only roads between the three different set- 
tlements were narrow beaten paths, without ferries 
or bridges. There were of course no houses of 
eraertainment : but here and there, along the 



27 

road, some settler erected a station, consisting of 
a log house, surrounded by palisades. These sta- 
tions afforded a resting place and an asylum to 
travellers through the wilderness. 

The seat of government was Vincennes, a small 
village beautifully and advantageously situated on 
the Wabash. This town was originally built by 
the French, and the greater part of its inhabitants 
were of French origin. They were sufficiently 
well disposed to respect the new authority placed 
over them, but were entirely ignorant of the lan- 
guage and the laws of the United States, prefer- 
ring those simple institutions under which they 
had long lived. 

The population of the new Territory was very 
small ; and the form of government established 
over it by the act of Congress regulating the Ter- 
ritory, was what was called the first grade of Ter- 
ritorial government ; a system under which very 
extensive authority was placed in the hands of the 
governor. The governor, with the assistance of 
the judges, had the power of adopting and pub- 
lishing such laws of the original states, civil and 
criminal, as might be necessary, and best suited 
to the circumstances of the Territory. He had 
the appointment of all magistrates and other civil 
officers, and all militia officers below the rank of 
general. He also possessed the sole power of di- 
viding the Territory into counties and townships. 
Besides this, the governor was the agent and rep- 
resentative of the general government, and kept 
^p a voluminous correspondence with the cabinet 
at Washington, in reference to the affairs of the 
Territory. 

Another power of a very delicate character was 
confided to the Governor of Indiana : that name- 



28 



ly, of confirming grants of land to individuals 
having certain equitable claims. This power, so 
great, and so liable to be abused, was entrusted to 
the governor alone, without any check or limita- 
tion. No other officer was required to approve, 
to countersign, or even to record these grants. 
The application was made directly to the gover- 
nor, and his sole signature vested a title. No 
formality or publicity was required ; and whatever 
secret collusion there might have been between 
the claimant and the governor, the title would still 
have been unquestionable before any legal tribu- 
nal. 

Such, however, was Governor Harrison's pru- 
dence, his scrupulous attention to the public in- 
terest, and his nice regard for his own honor, that 
none ever questioned or suspected his honest and 
just discharge of this delicate trust. Many men, 
under like circumstances, would have amassed 
splendid fortunes, by availing themselves of the 
facilities for speculation thus afforded ; but neither 
at this, nor at any other time did Governor Harri- 
son, either directly or indirectly, make any use 
for his own advantage, of any knowledge of land 
titles, gained in his official capacity ; nor has he 
evefr owned a single acre of land, held under a ti- 
tle emanating from himself, as the agent and rep- 
resentative of the general government. 

The governor of Indiana was ex-officio Superin- 
tendent of Indian affairs, in addition to which he 
was appointed sole Commissioner for treating with 
the Indians, — an appointment which carried with 
it a vast deal of trouble and labor. Soon after en- 
tering upon the government of the Indiana Terri- 
tory, Governor Harrison opened a communication 
with the Indian tribes, and was visited by most of 



29 



the principal chiefs in the vicinity of Vincennes. 
The Indians made verv heavy complaints of the 
conduct of the whites. They alleged that their 
people had been killed, their lands settled upon, 
their game destroyed, their young men made 
drunk, and then cheated of their furs, upon which 
they depended to procure blankets, ammunition, 
and other necessaries. 

The governor was well satisfied that the greater 
part of these allegations were true. The Ken- 
tucky settlers on the Ohio were in the constant 
habit of coming over into the Indian territory, and 
destroying the game. Numerous murders, some 
of them of a very aggravated character, had been 
perpetrated on the Indians. By the treaty of 
Greenville, murderers were to be delivered up, or 
punished, on both sides. This part of the treaty, 
the Indians had faithfully performed. In the case 
of several atrocious murders committed by the 
whites, the governor made every possible exertion 
to bring the culprits to justice ; but without suc- 
cess. They were either acquitted by the juries in 
the face of the plainest proofs, or else rescued 
from prison, and enabled to escape. The frontier 
settlers, in fact, considered the Indians to be as 
fair game as the wild animals of the forest. They 
did not regard the murder of an Indian as a crime. 
" All these injuries," says Governor Harrison in a 
letter to the Secretary of War, under date of the 
15th of July, 1801, "the Indians have hitherto 
borne with astonishing patience. But though 
they discover no disposition to make war upon the 
United States at present, 1 am confident that most 
of the tribes would eagerly seize any favorable op- 
portunity for that purpose. And should the United 
States be at war with any of the European nations, 



30 



who are known to the Indians, there would proba- 
bly be a combination of more than nine tenths of 
the northern tribes against us, unless some means 
are made use of to conciliate them." The war 
with Great Britain fully verified all these anticipa- 
tions. 

The governor was constantly engaged in at- 
tempts to put the affairs with the Indians on a bet- 
ter footing. Mr Jefferson, then President of the 
United States, procured the passage by Congress 
of several laws designed to secure the rights, and 
better the condition of the Indians. The sale of 
whiskey was prohibited ; and trading houses were 
established among them, by the government, for 
the purpose of supplying them with goods at cost, 
and protecting them against the frauds of the tra- 
ders. Efforts were also made to induce them to 
apply themselves to the cultivation of the land. 
But all these philanthropic attempts were counter- 
acted and defeated by the arts and intrigues of 
interested persons, who stirred up the prejudices 
of the Indians against things solely intended for 
their benefit ; and who, while they lived by the 
plunder of these unhappy savages, had the cun- 
ning to assume the character of their best friends. 
The British and the American traders alike com- 
bined to poison the minds of the Indians against 
the government ; and the reckless insults and 
abuse heaped upon them by the American settlers, 
afforded great color to the suggestions of the tra- 
ders, that the pretended philanthropy of the Ameri- 
can government, was merely a hypocritical dis- 
guise, under which were concealed the most hos- 
tile intentions, and diabolical designs. 

In the year 1804, the governor succeeded in ne- 
gotiating a treaty with the Sacs and Foxes, tribes 



31 



which had not been included in the treaty of 
Greenville. By this treaty, in addition to the 
peaceful relations established with these tribes, 
there was obtained the cession of an extensive and 
valuable tract of country, stretching along the 
Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois, to the 
mouth of the Wisconsin, including the whole 
region between the river Illinois and the Missis- 
sippi, with a northern boundary, extending from 
the head of Fox river, to a point on the Wiscon- 
sin, thirty six miles above its mouth. This was 
the largest tract of land which had ever yet been 
ceded by the Indians in one body. 

Some considerable cessions of land were also 
obtained from the Delawares and Piankishaws, by 
which a communication was opened between the 
different settlements of the Territory. All that 
tract between the Ohio and the AVabash, as far 
north as the road from Louisville to Vincennes, 
was obtained by one treaty, and by a subsequent 
treaty, the Piankishaws ceded a tract extending 
from Vincennes westward to the settlements on the 
Mississippi. This tribe, which had been original- 
ly a branch of the Miamies, was now very much 
reduced in numbers, and the lands ceded, by the 
destruction of the game, had ceased to be of any 
use to them. For these cessions the Indians were 
compensated by certain annuities, most of which 
still continue to be paid. 

Shortly after the purchase of Louisiana, that 
country was annexed to the government of the In- 
diana Territory, and so continued for some time. 
This annexation gave to the jurisdiction of Gover- 
nor Harrison a vast extent, and increased the la- 
borious duties of his station. 

In 1805, the Territory of Indiana was raised to 



32 



the second rank of Territorial government, being 
allowed a Territorial House of Assembly, elected 
by the citizens, and a Delegate to Congress. To 
complete the Territorial Legislature, a Legislative 
Council of five members was added, to be appoint- 
ed by the president out of twice that number 
nominated by the Territorial Assembly. Although 
the power of the governor was considerably 
abridged by this change, yet always partial to the 
rights of the people, he had exerted himself to 
bring it about, by which he gained the ill will of 
several leading citizens of the Territory, who re- 
garded the probable increase of expense and tax- 
es as a decisive argument against the change. 

The address of the governor at the first meet- 
ing of the Territorial Legislature, is a document 
interesting in itself, and an excellent specimen of 
that superior clearness and fluency of style in 
which all the state papers of General Harrison are 
written. We regret that our limits do not enable 
us to lay it before the reader. 

The reply of the Territorial Assembly clearly 
shows the high estimation in which the governor 
was held ; and is one among many proofs of that 
remarkable popularity with which his administra- 
tion was always attended. In this respect we 
may observe a striking difference between Gener- 
al Harrison and most of our other Territorial gov- 
ernors. The powers vested in these governors, 
especially according to the system which prevail- 
ed in Governor Harrison's time, are so extensive, 
and their authority is so nearly absolute, that in gen- 
eral, they have found it next to impossible to pre- 
serve any degree of popularity. The settlers, 
generally from the older states, where they have 
been accustomed to a participation in political af- 



33 



fairs, are apt to grow impatient at being governed 
by a man in whose appointment they have had no 
agency ; and though a governor may give no just 
cause of complaint, a jealousy of his intentions, 
and a repugnance to his authority, will naturally 
spring up, unless the greatest caution and good 
judgment on his part be used to prevent it. The 
conduct of Governor Harrison seems never to 
have excited any such hostile feelings in the hearts 
of those over whom he exercised the functions of 
government. He appears to have possessed an 
unusual faculty of conciliating, not only the re- 
spect, but the warm affections of those placed 
under his authority. This was owing not more to 
the suavity of his manners, and the evident good- 
ness of his heart, than to the disinterestedness, 
the moderation, and the wisdom with which he 
exercised the extensive powers entrusted to him. 
In the appointment of all public otlicers, judges 
only excepted, he appealed to the people ; and 
uniformly selected those who appeared to enjoy 
the confidence of their fellow-citizens. He acted 
upon this principle even to the sacrifice of private 
friendship and political feeling — having more than 
once appointed to office, persons who were opposed 
to him in sentiment, both with regard to men and 
to measures. He also refused to accept any of 
those fees, whether as governor or superintendent of 
Indian affairs, which before his time had been cus- 
tomarily paid. The patronage of his office was 
thus rendered worthless, and its emoluments were 
much diminished : but he secured what he esteem- 
ed of more value — the confidence and affections 
of the people. 

The method which Governor Harrison pursued 
in keeping his accounts with the general govern- 



34 



inent, was as simple as it was correct ; and in i 
some particulars might be advantageously imitated 
by the disbursing officers of the present day. He 
never kept on hand any amount of public money. 
When money was to be paid on the public account, 
he gave the person entitled to payment, a draft onj 
the War Department. A copy of the draft, and a 
receipt for the payment made, were always for- 
warded to Washincrton in the same letter. These 
drafts on the War Department were always m de- 
mand, and were readily cashed by persons having 
remittances to make to the eastern cities. In this 
way the department was saved the risk and ex- 
pense of transmitting money to the West ; all I 
long and complicated accounts, whether with the 
government, or with individuals, were avoided ; as 
well as all the temptations and embarrassments at- 
tendent upon the receipts and disbursement of 
large sums of public money. 



CHAPTER III. 



Tecurathe and the Propliet — The Prophet's interview with Har- 
rison — Treaty of Fort Wayne — Dissatisfaction of Tecumthe 
and the Prophet — Tecumthe's visit to Vincennes — Extract from 
a message of Governor Harrison to the Legislature of In- 
diana. 



During the year 1806, some very remarkable 
influences began to develop themselves among 
the Indian tribes Northwest of the Ohio; by 
which all the plans of the General Government for 
civilizing and conciliating those tribes, were dis- 



35 



turbed and broken up ; and by means of which 
the Indians were eventually involved in a war 
with the United States, which resulted in the ruin 
of many tribes, and their final expulsion from 
their homes and hunting grounds. 

Two twin brothers of the Shawnese tribe : Te- 
cumfhe, The Couching Panther, and Olliivachica., 
The Open Door, or as others interpret it, The 
Loud Voice, better known as the Prophet, seem 
to have formed a plan for a general union of all 
the Indian tribes, for the purj)ose of preventing 
any further encroachments by the whites, and for 
recovering a portion of the lands already lost. 
These two brothers, possessed between them, all 
the qualities and accomplishments necessary to 
give them influence with the race to which they 
belonged. Tecumthe was a celebrated warrior ; 
but not less distinguished in the council than in 
the field. He was a daring, sagacious, active, un- 
scrupulous man, who stopped at nothing in the ac- 
complishment of his purposes, but who preferred 
tact, management and negotiation to force. He 
was inspired with high enthusiasm, and with a deep 
hatred toward the whites, imbibed probably with 
his mother's milk. 

The Prophet is said not to have been a warrior ; 
but he was an orator even more accomplished and 
persuasive than his brother; and what was of far 
greater importance towards the accomplishment of 
their mutual object, he was a medicine man, or 
magician of the highest pretensions, holding con- 
stant intercourse with the Great Spirit, and claim- 
ing a vast and miraculous power over the opera- 
tions of nature. 

Ignorance and superstition are always twin sis- 
ters J and accordingly we find that all savage na- 



36 



tions are at once the slaves and the dupes of the 
most extravagant credulity, on the one hand, and 
the most impudent impostures on the other. Hav- 
ing made but few observations upon that regular 
and uninterrupted course in which the operations 
of nature proceed, they are constantly ready to as- 
cribe to accidental, supernatural influences, that 
which takes place according to fixed and regular 
laws ; and with that self-conceit and self-impor- 
tance which is so conspicuously displayed in al- 
most all systems of human opinion and belief, they 
readily adopt the idea, that some favored individu- 
als may not only obtain a certain extraordinary 
power over the operations of nature, but may even 
establish a sort of influence and control over those 
very supernatural beings, who are the great ob- 
jects of their reverence and awe. 

These wild opinions exercise a powerful influ- 
ence even among the most sagacious of the"5lavage 
warriors, — a circumstance at which we cannot be 
much surprised, when we consider the extent to 
which similar superstitions prevail, even among the 
most civilized nations. This credulity is taken 
advantage of by a set of persons among the Indian 
tribes called medicine men, who are in general, to 
a considerable extent, the dupes of their own im- 
postures, though they do not scruple, when occa- 
sion presents itself, to practise the most barefaced 
deceptions upon others who are still greater dupes 
than themselves. 

Such was Olliwachica, the Prophet. The pre- 
tensions, however, which he set up, were far more 
lofty than those advanced by the generality of his 
profession. He announced himself as having been 
specially sent by the Great Spirit to reform the 
manners of the red people, and to revive all those 



37 



old customs which had been discontinued by the 
too common and frequent intercourse of the Indi- 
ans with the whites. All the innovations in dress 
and manners which had thus been brought about, 
were abolished ; and they were promised the re- 
turn of all the happiness and prosperity which 
their forefathers had enjoyed, and of whicli they 
had heard their old men so often speak, provided 
they would implicitly obey the will, and follow the 
advice of the prophet. He pretended to foretell 
future events ; declared that he was invulnerable 
to the arms or shot of his enemies ; and promised 
the same inviolability to those of his followers who 
would devote themselves entirely to his service. 

By these lofty pretensions, the prophet soon suc- 
ceeded in securing the reverence and admiration 
of many, not only in his own, but in several of the 
neighboring tribes ; and he presently established 
himself at Greenville, on the borders of Indiana 
and Ohio, upon lands already ceded to the United 
States, where great numbers resorted to him to 
hear his preaching, listen to his revelations, and 
witness his incantations and miracles. In the 
mean time, Tecumthe was employed in travelling 
among all the tribes of the Northwest, spreading 
every where his brother's fame, and magnifying 
his supernatural power. It thus came about that 
the reputation of the prophet was generally greater 
at a distance, than in his own immediate vicinity. 
It often happened that his followers, engaged in 
religious exercises, and relying upon the supposed 
supernatural power of the prophet, neglected to 
provide the necessary means for their own subsis- 
tence, in consequence of which they sometimes 
approached the very verge of starvation. Dispir- 
ited and disappointed, the less persevering among 
4 



38 



them would feel their faith shaken, quit the proph- 
et and return home. At these very times, reports 
would be prevailinor at a distance, of abundance 
and luxury supernaturally existing in the proph- 
et's camp. It was alleged and firmly believed, 
that he caused pumpkins to spring out of the 
ground as large as a house, and that he had the 
power of causing corn to grow up suddenly and 
spontaneously, of so remarkable a size, that one 
ear would suffice lo feed a dozen men. These 
wonderful stories, which found a ready belief 
among the superstitious and idle, were propagated 
in every direction by the indefatigable exertions 
ofTecumthe; and numerous devotees from the 
most distant tribes were continually flocking to- 
wards the prophet, and making good the places of 
those, whom disappointment, disbelief, or the love 
of change induced to quit him. 

Tecumthe and his brother applied their most 
earnest efforts to bring over to their party, the 
chiefs of their own tribe, of the Delawares, and 
the Miamies. In this effort they had, on the 
whole, but little success. These chiefs did not 
feel inclined to surrender up all their authority and 
influence into the hands of two adventurers who 
claimed an authority from the Great Spirit, to 
control every thing. They openly accused them 
of imposture, and endeavored to open the eyes of 
those Indians, whom a belief in the supernatural 
powers of the prophet had attracted from a dis- 
tance. Undismayed by this opposition, the two 
brothers applied themselves to undermine the au- 
thority and influence of the chiefs, by accusing 
them of having betrayed their trust, of having sold 
their tribes to the white ujen, and of having caused 
all the calamities of the Indians by those cessions 
of land to which they had consented. 



39 

With the Delaware tribe they went still furthe. . 
atid resorted to the most extraordinary method of 
ridding tliemselves of the opposing chiefs. Tiiey 
preferred against these chiefs the charge of witch- 
craft, an indefinite but tcrribhi offence, which the 
Indians contemplate with such iiorror and alarm, 
that the mere accusation generally passes vvitli 
them as a sufficient proof of guilt. Having 
wrought up the tribe to a high pitch of fanatical 
fury, the Shawnese intriguers succeeded in procur- 
ing the execution of Teteboxti, a venerable war- 
rior, eighty years of age, and of one other of the ob- 
noxious chiefs ; nor is it at all certain to what ex- 
treme lengths they might have gone, had not their 
proceedings been interrupted by the arrival of a 
snecial messencrer, bearincr a strontr remonstrance 
against the murder of their chiefs, addresse 1 by 
Governor Harrison to the Delaware tribe. This 
remonstrance put a stop to further executions. 

The operations of the prophet and his brother 
were continued, however, with the greatest perse- 
verance and assiduity. The prophet appointed 
occasional seasons of prayer and exhortation, 
which were continued for many days in succes- 
sion. Previous notice beinsj criven of the time at 
which they were to be held, the Indians of the 
most distant tribes flocked to hear them, frequent- 
ly to the neglect of their corn-fields and other 
means of subsistence, so that the agents of the 
United States were obliged to supply them with 
provisions to preserve them from starvation. Du- 
ring these seasons, the devotees of the prophet 
seemed wholly possessed with a sort of religious 
phrenzy ; but their religious exercises were always 
succeeded or intermixed with warlike sports, such 
as shooting with bows, throwing the tomahawk, 



40 



and wielding the war-club. This combination of 
religious and warlike exercises, and especially this 
revival of the use of weapons of their own manufac- 
ture, plainly intimated the ultimate intentions of 
the prophet. 

The two brothers, with all their efforts, were 
not able to obtain a preponderating influence with 
the Delawares and Miamies, among whom they 
were well known. But their influence with the 
more distant tribes, the Ottawas, Chippewas, Poto- 
vvatomies, Kickapoos and Winnebagos was very 
great; and in the summer of 1808, the prophet 
removed his encampment to a spot on the banks 
of the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Upper Wa- 
bash, — a place since known as The Prophet's 
toivn, — with the design perhaps of being nearer 
to those tribes over whom he possessed the great- 
est influence. This purpose he effected in spite 
of the opposition of the Delawares and Miamies, 
to whom the land belonged, and who were very 
anxious to prevent his settlement upon it. 

About this time our relations with Great Britain 
assumed a very hoj-tile aspect, and war seemed to 
be impending. The British Indian agents, and 
traders in Canada, anxious as it was supposed, to 
strengthen themselves by alliances with the Indi- 
ans, had opened, as was generally believed, a 
communication with the prophet, and through him 
with all the Indian tribes. This circumstance 
caused the influence of the prophet to be regarded 
as the more formidable, and his operations to be 
watched with a more jealous eye. 

The prophet, conscious of the suspicions which 
were entertained of his designs, and not yet 
ready to break with the Americans, resolved to 
practise a bold deception, and by the most positive 



41 

protestations of his pacific intentions, to deceive if 
possible the vigilance of Governor Harrison. 
With this design, soon after his establishment at 
Tippecanoe, he sent a message to Viiiciiiiries, in 
which he complained bitterly of the misrepresenta- 
tions of his views and designs which were circu- 
lated in the settlements, and promised shortly to 
visit the governor in person. In the month of 
August he made his appearance accordingly, and 
remained with the governor about two weeks. 

Shortly after his arrival, the prophet delivered 
to the governor the following speech : 

" Father, It is three years since I first began with 
that system of religion which I now practise. The 
white people and some of the Indians were against 
me ; but 1 had no intention except to introduce among 
the Indians those good principles of rehgion which 
the white people profess. I was spoken badly of by 
the white people, who reproached me with misleading 
the Indians ; but I defy them to say that I did any 
thing amiss. 

" Father, I was told that you intended to hang me. 
When I heard this, I resolved to remember it, and to 
tell my Father, when I went to see him, the whole 
truth. 

" I also heard that you, my Father, wanted to 
know whether I was God or man, and that you had 
said, if I was the former. I should not steal horses. 
This I heard but I did not believe it. 

"The Great Spirit told me to tell the Indians that 
he had made them and the world, and that he had 
placed them in it to do good and not evil. 

" I told all the Indians that the way they were in 
was not good, and that they ought to abandon it : 
that we ought to live agreeably to our several cus- 
toms, the red people after their mode, and the white 
people after theirs ; particularly that they should not 
drink whiskey, which was not made for them, but for 
the white people, who alone knew how to use it j 

4* 



42 



and that it is the cause of all the mischiefs which the 
Indians suffer. I bade them follow the directions of 
the Great Spirit, as it was he who made us. I told 
them to listen to nothing that is bad. I said to them — 
Do not tfike up the tomahawk should it be oifered 
by the British, or by the Long Knives. Do not 
meddle with anything that does not belong to you, 
but mind your own business and cultivate the ground, 
that your women and children mtcy have enough to 
live ujjon. 

" I now inform you that it is our intention to live 
in peace with our father and his people forever. 

"■My Father, I have informed you what we mean 
to do, and 1 call the Great Spirit to witness the truth 
of my declaration. The religion which I have estab- 
lished has been received by all the different tribes of 
Indians in this part of the world. They were once a 
divided peo})Ie ; they are now one ; and they are all 
determined to practise what 1 have received from the 
Great Spirit and declared to them. 

" Brother, I speak to you as a warrior. You are 
one. But let us lay aside this character, and attend 
to the care of our children, that they inay live in 
comfort and peace. We desire you to unite with us 
for the preservation of both the red and the white 
man. Formerly, when we lived in ignorance we 
were foolish, but now since we listen to the voice of 
the Great Spirit, we are happy. 

" I have listened to what you have said to us. 
You have })romised to assist us. I now request you 
in behalf of the red peoj)le, to use your exertions to 
prevent the sale of liquor to us. We are all well 
pleased to hear you say that you will endeavor to 
promote our haj)piness. We give you every assu- 
rance that we will follow the dictates of the Great 
Spirit." 

This speech so characteristic of the person by 
whom it was delivered, but at the same time so 
well calculaled to obtain confidence, was followed 
up by a corresponding course of conduct. The 



43 



prophet, often in the presence of the governor, 
harangued his followers; and his constant topics 
were, the evils of war, and of whiskey-drinking. 
That upon this latter subject, the prophet had ob- 
tained a complete mastery over the passions and 
appetites of his disciples, was apparent from the 
fact, that by no persuasion could they be prevailed 
upon, under any circumstances, to touch a drop 
of that liquor, which formerly was one of their 
greatest objects of desire. 

On the whole the governor was rather favorably 
impressed by this visit of the prophet ; and was 
induced to regard him as a person disposed to use 
the vast influence which he had obtained over the 
Indians, for good purposes ; and capable of being 
employed as an instrument, for checking their most 
dangerous vices, and promoting their civilization. 

Soon after the return of the prophet to his town, 
notwithstanding all the pacific protestations he had 
made, reports of his intention to attack the white 
settlements prevailed extensively, both in those 
settlements themselves, and among the Indian 
tribes; and the number of warriors which he 
often had at his town, and under his control, was 
a constant source of apprehension and alarm. 
The prophet's town also soon became the refuge 
of all those Indians, to whatever tribe they migh 
belong, who had committed depredations of ant 
kind upon the whites; and though in reply to thy 
messages that were sent to him, the prophet al- 
ways returned very civil and peaceable answers, 
it was impossible to obtain from him the surrender 
of any of the depredators. 

Governor Harrison had long considered it a very 
desirable object, to obtain the cession of that tract 
of land which intervened between the settlements 



44 



about Vincennes, and the cession which had been 
made at the treaty of Greenville. Considering 
this to be a favorable time to effect that object, he 
obtained the necessary authority from the War 
Department ; and in a council held at Fort Wayne 
in September, ic!>09, he succeeded in gaining the 
assent to the cession of the Miamies, the Dela- 
wares, the Potovvatomies, and the Kickapoos, — the 
only tribes who had the slightest claim of title to 
the land. The consideration for the cession con- 
sisted in certain annuities which the tribes con- 
cerned regarded as a satisfactory equivalent. 

This purchase, however, was soon made a great 
matter of complaint by tlie prophet and his broth- 
er. They set up the doctrine, that the Indian 
lands belonged in common, to all the tribes ; and 
that for a cession to be binding, all the tribes must 
join in it. On this ground they denounced the 
treaty of Fort Wayne as invalid ; and threatened 
to kill all the chiefs who had been concerned in 
making it. They assumed every day a more hos- 
tile attitude ; and though they still professed the 
most pacific intentions, there was every reason to 
believe that they were only waiting for a favorable 
opportunity to com:y;etice hostilities. Their in- 
fluence was considerably increased about this time 
by their success in gaining over the Hurons or 
Wyandots to their party. This was a small tribe, 
but though few in number, they possessed great 
influence in the Indian councils. The other tribes 
called them Unkles, and venerated them for their 
superior talents and valor. To their custody was 
committed the great belt, which had been the 
symbol of union between the tribes during their 
war with the United States, and also the original 
duplicate of the treaty of Greenville, by which that 



45 



war had been concluded. The prophet, conscious 
of the great advantaije which he should derive 
from the adhesion of the Wyandots, sent them a 
deputation, expressing his surprise that a nation 
which had directed the councils of so many other 
tribes, and nad always taken so leading a part in 
all wirs and negotiations with the whites, should 
sit still, and allow two or three tribes to cede away 
lands which belonojed to all the Indians in common. 
He requested also to see the treaties in their pos- 
session ; being anxious to know what they actual- 
ly contained. 

The Wyandots replied, that they had carefully 
preserved the belt which formerly united all the 
tribes as one nation ; but it had remained so long 
in their hands, without any inquiry being made 
about it, that they had supposed it was forgotten. 
They were glad however that at length it was call- 
ed for. For themselves, they were tired of their 
present situation ; they wished with all their heart, 
to see all the tribes united again as one man. 
Everything done since the treaty of Greenville, 
they looked upon as good for nothing; and they 
were ready to join with the prophet in bringing 
the tribes together, and uniting them so as to put 
a stop to the encroachments of the white people, 
and to attempt the recovery of what had been un- 
justly taken from them. They had been pushed 
back until they could go back no further ; and 
they might as well die where they were, as be dri- 
ven amoncr those distant and hostile tribes who 
would probably kill them. 

This answer of the Wyandots, the prophet im- 
mediately circulated in every direction, rnd it pro- 
duced a strong impression in his favor. Even 
Bome of the Miami chiefs were so intimidated by 



46 



the reproaches of the Wyandots, who passed! 
through their village, on their way to the prophet,' 
as to consent to attend a general meeting at the 
prophet's town. 

The influence which this person acquired, and 
the readiness with which his views were adopted 
by the Indians was but natural. At this time the | 
Indians of the Northwest—especially those tribes 
nearest to the white settlements, — were in a 
wretched condition. The game which formerly 
was so abundant, was now so scarce, in many 
parts of the country, as hardly to afford subsist- 
ence to the most active hunters; and a large part; 
of each tribe was often in a state of starvation. : 
Even the European war was felt in its conse-1 
quences by these [ndians, and tended to aggra- 
vate their suiferinsfs. The commercial exclusion 
of the Encrlish from the continent, — where the 
greater part of the American furs had usually been 
disposed of, — had so reduced the price of those 
articles, that the Indians could hardly procure 
with the produce of their year's hunt, the necessa- 
ry ammunition for the next year. Whiskey, which 
in spite of all attempts to prevent it, was sold pro- 
fusely among them, produced its usual ravages ; 
and the conciliatory efforts and benevolent inten- 
tions of the general government were constantly 
neutralized by the conduct of the settlers, most of 
whom were inspired with a bitter hatred and de- 
testation of the Indians, and a total disregard of 
their feelings and rights. It is true that a war 
with the United States was more likely to ag- 
gravate than to remedy all these evils, — a consid- 
eration which had great weight with a portion of 
the Indians, and which operated to restrain them 
from hostilities ; but a consideration which was 



47 



little regarded by the more fanatical followers of 

the prophet, who placed implicit confidence in the 

orophecies of their leader, and who fondly relied 

^oon the etfect of his supernatural intimacy with 

t'* Great Spirit. 

'overnor Harrison, however, was for a long 

^^'^^^ncrcdulous as to the actual danger of a war ; 

^^.?j*^^ the reports of hostile intentions which came 
in from every quarter, induced him to make such 
preparations as were in his power, to guard against 
its effects. He did not doubt that war had been 
thought of and talked about; but he supposed that 
the fears and the prudence of the Indians, would 
prevail over their inclination for hostilities. To 
ascertain, if possible, the real intentions of the 
prophet, he sent several messengers to his town; 
and finally invited him and his brother to make a 
visit to Vincennes. 

Tecumthe came accordingly ; and though the 
governor, who had no great confidence in his good 
faith, had particularly requested him not to bring 
above thirty attendants, he brought with him four 
hundred warriors completely armed. About forty ' 
of these warriors were present at the Council hol- 
den on the ISth of August. The governor was at- 
tended by the Judges of the Supreme Court, several 
officers of the army, Winnemack, a friendly chief 
of the Potowatomies, and a considerable number of 
unarmed citizens. A guard consisting of a Ser- 
jeant and twelve men, were placed near the gover- 
nor ; but as in that position they were exposed to 
the sun, he sent tliem to a shade at some dis- 
tance. 

Tecumthe opened the Council by a speech, in 
which the designs of himself and his brother were 
fully avowed. He declared that it was their ob- 



48 

Ject to form a combination of all the tribes, 
for the purpose of putting a stop to further en- 
croachments on the part of the whites, and to 
establish it as a principle that lands were to b 
considered the common property of all the trib"'* 
never to be sold without the consent of all. ^^ 
avowed the intention of putting to death all f^.^ .. 
chiefs who had been concerned in any of the late 
treaties. But still, with a strange inconsistency, 
he persisted in the assertion, that he and his bro- 
ther had no intention of making w^r ; and declared 
that they who had given this information to the 
governor were liars. This was particularly aimed 
at Winnemack, who had often communicated to the 
governor the designs of the prophet, and who was 
now overwhelmed with such a torrent of threats and 
abuse by Tecumthe, that he secretly charged a 
pistol which he had in his hand, and stood ready to 
defend his life. 

In reply, the governor ridiculed the assertion of 
Tecumthe tliat the Great Spirit had intended the 
Indians to be one people, — for if so, why had he 
put different tongues into their heads, instead of 
giving them one language which all might under- 
stand ? As to the land in dispute, it had been 
bought of the Miamies, who owned it at a time when 
the Shawnese lived in Georgia. They had seen 
fit to sell it; and what business had the Shawnese 
to come from a distant country and undertake to 
control them in the disposal of their own proper- 
ty ? Here the governor stopped to give the inter- 
preters an opportunity to explain to the Indians 
what he had said. The interpreter to the Shaw- 
nese had concluded, and the interpreter to the Po- 
tawatomies was just about to begin, when Tecum- 
the rose, interrupted the interpreter, and com- 



49 



rnenced speaking in a very violent manner, and 
with the most vehement gesticulations, declaring 
that all the governor had said was false, and that 
he and the United States had cheated and imposed 
upon the Indians. He had spoken but a few words 
when his warriors seized their arms, sprung upon 
their feet, and began to brandish their tomahawks 
and war-clubs, their eyes all fixed upon the gov- 
ernor, who immediately rose from the arm-chair in 
which he was sitting, and drew a sword which he 
had by his side. The Chief Winnemack cocked 
his pistol ; some of the officers drew their wea- 
pons : and the unarmed cirizens caught up brick- 
bats and other missiles, and stood upon the de- 
fensive. During this singular scene, no one spoke, 
till the guard came running up and were about to 
fire, when the governor ordered them to stop. He 
then demanded from the interpreter an explana- 
tion of what had happened, and received from him 
ah account of what Tecumthe had said. Turn- 
incr then to Tecumthe, the governor told him that 
he was a bad man, and that he would hold no fur- 
ther communication with him. As he had come 
under the protection of the council-fire, he might 
depart in safqty, but he must instantly leave the 
neighborhood. Thereupon the Council was im- 
mediately broken up, and Tecumthe retired to his 
camp. 

That night the militia of Vincennes were all 
under arms in expectation of an attack, but none 
was made. Tecumthe, findino; that he had to do 
with a man of firmness and sagacity, who could 
not be disconcerted by his insolence, nor intimi- 
dated by his violence, professed the next morning, 
the greatest regret for the improprieties into which 
he had been betrayed the day before, and requested 

5 






50 

a second interview with the governor. The beha- 
viour of TecLimthe at this second interview, was 
very different from what it had been the day be- 
fore. His deportment was dignified and collected, 
and he showed not the least disposition to be inso- 
lent. He denied any intention of attacking the 
governor, but said he had been advised by white 
people to take the course he had adopted. They 
had told him, that half the whites were opposed to 
the purchase ; and if he made a vigorous resist- 
ance to the execution of the treaty of Fort Wayne, 
the governor would soon be recalled and a good 
man put in his place, who would give un the land. 
Being asked by the governor if he intended to pre- 
vent the survey of the new purchase, he replied, 
that he and his friends were determined to adhere 
to the old boundary. 

After Tecumthe had finished, a Wyandol, a 
Potowatomie, an Ottawa, a Kickapoo, and a Win- 
ebago, severally spoke. They declared that their 
tribes had entered into the Shawnese confederacy, 
and that they would support the principles laid 
down by Tecumthe, whom they had appointed 
their leader. In conclusion the governor inform- 
ed the Indians, that he would lay before the Presi- 
dent, a statement of their pretensions to the land 
in dispute ; but that he was well satisfied that the 
President never would admit that they had any 
thing to do with the sale by the Miamies, of lands 
possessed and occupied by them, ever since the 
country had been known to white men ; and that 
the title of the United States to the land in ques- 
tion, would be sustained, if need were, by force. 

Very anxious to discover the real sentiments and 
intentions of Tecumthe, the governor afterwards, 
attended only by an interpreter, paid him a visit t 



51 

his camp. He was very politely received, and 
conversed a lon^ time with the chief. Being ques- 
tioned on that point, Tecumthe declared that his 
intentions were really soch as he had avowed in 
the Council. He was very loath, he said, to go to 
war with the United States, and if they would give 
up the land in dispute, and agree never to make 
another treaty without the consent of all the tribes, 
he would be their ally, and assist them in their 
wars with the British. He said he knew well that 
the British were urging the Indians to make war 
upon the Americans, not out of any regard they 
had for the welfare of the Indians, but merely for 
purposes of their own. Nevertheless, if the United 
States would not comply with his terms, he should 
be obliged to unite with the English. 

The governor told him that he would inform the 
President of his views ; but added, that there was 
not the least probability of his terms being acceded 
to. " Well," said Tecumthe, " as your great chief 
is to determine this matter, I hope the Great Spirit 
will put sense enough into his head, to make him 
give up the land. It is true, he is so far off he 
will not be injured by the war. He may sit in his 
town and drink his wine, whilst you and I will 
have to fight it out." 

The following statement of the facts of the con- 
troversy with the prophet and Tecumthe, growing 
out of the treaty of Fort Wayne, is extracted from 
the message of Governor Harrison to the territo- 
rial Legislature of Indiana at its session during the 
winter of 1810. It contains so clear and distinct 
a view of the whole dispute, as to deserve an in- 
sertion in this place. 

" Presenting as we do, a very extended frontier to 
numerous and warlike tribes of the aborigines, the stat© 



5S 



of our relations with them must always form an import- 
ant and interesting feature in our local politics. It is 
with regret that I have to inform you that the harmony 
and good understanding, which it is so much our inter- 
est to cultivate with these our neighbors, have, for 
some time past, experienced a considerable interrup- 
tion, and that we have been threatened with hostilities 
by a combination, formed under the auspices of a bold 
adventurer, who pretends to act under the immediate 
inspiration of the Deity. His character as a prophet 
would not, however, have given him any very dange- 
rous influence, if he had not been assisted by the 
intrigues and advice of foreign agents, and other dis- 
affected persons, who have for many years omitted no 
opportunity of counteracting the measures of govern- 
ment with regard to the Indians, and filling their 
naturally jealous minds with suspicion of the justice 
and integrity of our views towards them. The cir- 
cumstance laid hold of to encourage disaffection on 
the late occasion was, the treaty made by me at Fort 
Wayne in the autumn of last year. Among the difli- 
culties to be encountered in obtaining those extin- 
guishments of title which have proved so beneficial 
to the treasury of the United States, and so necessary 
as the means of increasing the population of the 
Territory, the most formidable was, that of ascertain- 
ing the tribes to be admitt<d as parties to the cession. 
The subject was accordingly discussed in a long cor- 
respondence between the government and myself; 
and the principles finally adopted were made as liberal 
towards the Indians, as a due regard to the interests 
of the United States would admit. Of the tribes 
which had formed the confederacy in the war, which 
was terminated by the peace of Greenville, some were 
resident upon lands which had been in possession of 
their forefathers at the time the first settlements were 
made in America by white people ; whilst others, 
emigrants from distant parts of the country, had no 
other claim to the tracts they occupied, than what a 
few years' residence, by the tacit consent of the real 
owners, could give. Upon common and general 



53 

principles, a transfer of the title of the former de- 
scription, would have been sufficient to vest in the 
purchaser, the lethal right to lands so situated. But 
in all hs transactions with the Indians, our govern- 
inunt have not been content vv. h doing that which 
was just onl}'. Its savage neighbors have, on all occa- 
sions, experienced its liberality and benevolence. 
Upon this principle, in several of the treaties which 
have been made, several tribes have been admitted to 
a participation of their benefits, who had no title to 
the lands ceded, merely because they have been 
accustomed to hunt upon, and derive part of their 
support from them. For this reason, and to prevent 
the Miamies, who were the real owners of the land, 
from experiencing any ill effects from their resent- 
ment, in case they were excluded, the Delawares, 
Potowatomies, and Kickapoos were made parties to 
the late treaty of Fort Wayne. No other tribe was 
admitted, because it had never been suggested that 
any other could plead even the title of use and occu- 
pancy of the lands, which at that time were conveyed 
to the United States. It was not until eight months 
after the conclusion of the treaty, and after his design 
of forming a hostile combination against the United 
States, had been discovered and defeated, that the 
pretensions of the prophet, with regard to the lands 
in question were made known. A furious clamor 
was then raised by the foreign agents among us, and 
other disaffected persons, against the policy which 
had excluded from the treaty this great and influentiai 
character as he was termed ; and the doing so was 
expressly attributed to personal ill will on the part of 
the negociator. No such ill will did, in fact, exist, f 
accuse myself inc^eed of an error, in the patronage 
and support which 1 afforded him, upon his first arri- 
val on the Wabash, before his hostility to the United 
States had been developed ; but upon no principle of 
propriety or policy could he have been made a party 
to the treaty. The personage called the prophet, is 
not a chief of the tribe to \vhir,h he belongs, but an 
outcast from it. rejected and hated by the real chiefs^ 
5* 



54 

the principal of whom was present at the treaty^ and 
not only disclaimed upon the part of his tribe, any 
title to the lands ceded, but used his personal influence 
with the chiefs of the other tribes, to effect the cession. 
As soon as I was informed that his dissatisfaction at 
the treaty was assigned as the cause of the hostile ; 
attitude which the prophet had assumed, I sent to j 
inform him, that whatever claims he might have to | 
the lands which had been purchased by the United li 
States, were not in the least affected by that purchase ; ,, 
that he might come forward and exhibit his preten- 
sions, and if they were really found to be just or equit- 
able, the lands would be restored, or an ample equiv-- 
alent given for them. His brother was deputized and 
sent to me for that purpose ; but far from being able 
to show any color of claim, cither for himself or any 
of his followers, his objections to the treaty were con- 
fined to the assertion, that all the land upon the con- 
tinent was the common property of all the tribes, and 
that no sale of any part of it would be valid, without 
the consent of all. A proposition so extremely ab- 
surd, and which would forever prevent any further 
purchase of lands by the United States, could receive 
no countenance from any friend to his country. He 
had, however, the insolence to declare, that by the 
acknowledgment of that principle alone could the 
effects of his resentment be avoided. JSo person who 
is in the least acquainted with the history of Indian 
affairs upon our northwestern frontier for some years 
past, can be at any loss for the source of all this mis- 
chief, or will hesitate to believe that the prophet is a 
tool of British fears or British avarice, employed for 
the purpose of forming a combination among the 
Indians, which in case of war between that jiower 
and the United States, may assist them in the defence 
of Canada ; or at all events may be employed as a 
means of keeping back our settlements, and by ren- | 
dering us suspected and hated by the natives, secure I 
themselves a continuance of the valuable fur trade, 
which they have so long engrossed." 



65 



CHAPTER IV. 

Prosecution for Slander — Aggressions of ibe Propliet — Marcb 
to Tippecanoe — Battle of Tippecanoe. 

However acceptable to the people of the Ter- 
ritory, was the conduct of the governor, both in 
reference to its internal affairs, and to Indian rela- 
tions, there was, as always happens in such cases, 
a small but extremely active party, diligently em- 
ployed in counteracting or embarrassing all his 
measures. To the conduct and complaints of these 
persons, there are several allusions in the extract 
above given from the governor's message. In the 
territory, where the character and motives of his 
traducers were known, the reports which they 
might put in circulation could do little mischief. 
But as these calumnies began to be repeated in 
distant parts of the country, and even found their 
way into the halls of Congress, governor Harrison 
considered it due, both to his own character and 
to that of the general government, to bring the 
matter to the test, and to procure an examination 
of his conduct in relation to the treaty of Fort 
Wayne, while the subject was still fresh, and the 
proofs within reach. Believing an investigation 
by a court of justice to be the most effectual 
within his power, he commenced an action for 
slander in the Supreme Court of the territory, 
against one M'Intosh, a Scotchman, of large 
pronerty at Vincennes, who had long been hostile 
to him, and indeed was believed not to be very 
warmly attached to the government of the United 
States. This person had asserted that the gover- 
nor had cheated the Indians in the treaty at Fort 



55 



ayne; and for this slander the action was 
brought. Every means was taken to ensure an 
impartial trial. Of the three judges, one left the 
bench because he was the personal friend of the 
governor, and another because he was the personal 
friend of the defendant ; and the trial was solely 
conducted by the third judge, who had recently 
arrived in the territory, and was but slightly ac- 
quainted with either of the parties. To ensure an 
impartial jury, the court appointed two persons, 
who returned a panel of fortyeight jurors. From 
this fortyeight the plaintiff and defendant each 
struck twelve, and from the remaining tvventyfour 
the jury was selected by lot. 

Every person concerned in the Indian depart- 
ment, or who could know anything of the circum- 
stances attending the negotiation of the treaty of 
Fort Wayne, was examined, and every latitude 
was allowed the defendant in the examination. 
Finding that they could make out nothing against 
the treaty, the defendant's counsel began to ask 
questions respecting the governor's civil adminis- 
tration. To this the court objected, as being ir- 
relevant to the point in issue ; but at the earnest 
solicitation of the governor, the defendant was 
permitted to pursue his own course, and to ask 
questions on all points which he thought proper. 
The examination of witnesses having closed, the 
defendant's counsel abandoned all idea of justifi- 
cation, and contended only for a mitigation of 
damages. The jury returned a verdict of $4000 
against the defendant, an immense verdict, in a 
new country, where money was scarce, and where 
damages given by juries, in general, are very small. 
To satisfy this judgment, a large amount of the 
defendant's lands were exposed to sale, and in the 



57 



absence of the governor, in the command of the 
army, the ensuing year, they were bought in by 
his agent. Two thirds of this property the gov- 
ernor afterwards returned to ?jriiitosh; and the 
remainder lie distributed among the orplian chil- 
dren of several distinguished citizens, who fell in 
the service of their country, in the war of 18^2. 

Tecumthe and the prophet still continued their 
liostile preparations ; and the aggressions on the 
■whites, committed by |)ersons whom they encour- 
aged and protected, became every day more ag- 
gravated. Horses were stolen, houses were plun- 
dered, families were murdered, and the whole 
frontier was thrown into a state of agitation and 
alarm. The governor sent a speech to the proph- 
et, informing him of the terror which his proceed- 
ings excited among the people of the Territory, 
and assuring him that he must desist, otherwise 
the United States would be beforehand with him 
in commencing hostilities. This message pro- 
duced a second visit from Tecumthe, who however 
gave no satisfaction ; and who soon departed on a 
journey to the South, in the hope of persuading 
the southern Indians, to join in his confederacy. 
His mother was a Creek, a circumstance on which 
he placed much reliance ; and it is certain, that 
some two years later, he induced the Creeks to 
raise the hatchet ajjainst the United States. 

Under these circumstances, greatly to his own 
satisfaction, and that of the people of the Terri- 
tory, the governor received instructions to move 
towards the prophet's town with an armed force. 
He was expressly required however to avoid hos- 
tilities, " of any kind, or to any degree, not ab- 
solutely necessary." These latter instructions 
placed the governor in a very delicate position. 



58 



and gave every advantage to those against whom 
he was to act. He was to march upon the proph- 
et's town, but was not to light unless obliged to. 
This secured to the prophet the opportunity of 
choosing the time and place of attack, of select- 
ing his own ground, and strikintj the first blow. 

The troops for this expedition were collected at 
Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, about sixty miles 
above Vincennes. They consisted of the Fourth 
Eegiment of United States Infantry, under Col. 
Boyd, 350 strong, and about 550 volunteer mi- 
litia, including a squadron of dragoons, and three 
companies of mounted riflemen. The volunteers 
were principally from Indiana, but some sixty or 
seventy were from Kentucky, including several 
gentlemen of distinguished reputation in that 
State, besides several young men, who after- 
wards gained much credit by their services in the 
subsequent war with Great Britain. 

The Delawares still adhered to the interests of 
the United States, and the governor had sent for 
the chiefs to join him at Fort Harrison. He des- 
patched some of them on a mission to the proph- 
et, to induce him to lay aside his hostile designs. 
This mission was unavailing. The Delawares on 
their return, reported that they had been ill re- 
ceived, ill treated, insulted, and finally dismissed 
with the most contemptuous remarks upon them- 
selves and the governor. 

The army commenced its advance from Fort 
Harrison, on the 28th of October, 1811, and the 
whole march was conducted with great caution. 
The troops were encamped every night, in order 
of battle, and they marched always in two lines, 
on each side the trail which served as a road, in 
such order that by a single movement they could 



69 

be formed into two lines, or thrown into a holIoxT 
square, as circumstances might require. The 
dragoons and mounted riflemen covered the front, 
fKUiks, and rear, and exchanged positions with 
each other as the ground varied, so as to ensure 
to each that which was most favorable to its par- 
ticular method of fighting. 

At some distance above Fort Harrison, two 
routes presented themselves ; one, which was the 
shorter, along the south bank of the Wabash, but 
which passed through a woody and uneven coun- 
try ; while the other, on the opposite bank of the 
river, led, for the most part, through level and 
open prairies. To deceive the enemy, the gover- 
nor advanced upon the south side of the river, for 
some miles, when suddenly he changed his direc- 
tion, crossed the stream, and pursued the northern 
road. By this manoeuvre, the Indians were com- 
pletely misled, and the troops advanced for sev- 
eral days without seeing any traces of the enemy. 
For the purpose of keeping himself informed of 
the movements and proceedings of the prophet, 
the governor employed a number of Indian scouts. 
Hearing nothing from these scouts, and seeing 
nothing of the enemy, the governor became alarm- 
ed, lest the prophet might have passed the flanks 
of the army and advanced toward the settlements. 
This was a manosuvre perfectly practicable, 
Vincennes was but an outpoot ; and the settle- 
ments extending from it towards the falls of the 
Ohio, formed a narrow line of little strength, and 
ditiicult to be defended. Besides, a large propor- 
tion of the able bodied men were present with the 
army. Impressed with this danger, and desirous 
at all events to save the settlements from the mis- 
eries of Indian devastation, the governor dimin- 



62 



goons, who occupied the centre, were kept as a 
reserve, and were directed in case of attack, to 
parade dismounted, and wait for orders. After 
reconnoitreing the whole ground, the governor 
called the officers together, and gave particular di- 
rections to each how to draw up and dispose of 
his men, in case of attack, and what measures to 
take under all the circumstances which were like- 
ly to occur. After receiving these orders the offi- 
cers retired to rest, much dissatisfied at the pros- 
pect of returning home without a battle. 

Indeed, there was not a sinale individual in the 
camp, who believed that an attack would be made 
that night. The governor and those officers who 
were best acquainted with the Indian mode of 
fighting were the least apprehensive on this point. 
They did not believe that the Indians would dare 
to attack by night, an army so favorably posted ; 
for in the dark they lose the peculiar advantage 
they possess in the day time, from the accuracy of 
their rifles, and their dexterity in covering them- 
selves with trees, logs, and bushes. The muskets, 
buck-shot, and bayonets of a body of firm and 
disciplined troops, must in a night attack, always 
prevail over the rifles of the Indians. The gov- 
ernor indeed expected, that sooner or later, the 
prophet would attack him by treachery or ambus- 
cade ; but he supposed that some opportunity 
would be selected more promising of success. 
But whatever opinions were entertained as to the 
likelihood of an attack, every possible precaution 
was taken to be prepared for it. The camp 
was surrounded by a chain of sentinels, posted at 
such a distance as to give notice of the approach 
of the enemy in time for the troops to take their 
position, yet not so distant as to prevent their re- 



63 



treat, if overpowered by numbers. In civilized 
warfare, picquets or detached guards, are frequent- 
ly posted at a considerable distance from the camp, 
and on the roads leadinof to it. Ajjainst Indians 
such guards are useless, for tliey do not require a 
road on which to move, and these detached par- 
lies would always be cut off by the enemy's supe- 
rior adroitness. 

In conformity to a general order, the troops 
went to rest with their clothes and accoutrements 
on, their muskets loaded by their sides, and their 
bayonets fixed. The officers were ordered to sleep 
in the same manner. It was the governor's con- 
stant practice to be completely ready to mount 
his horse at a moment's warning. The night 
passed without any disturbance, and the governor 
and his aids rose about a quarter of four, and were 
sitting in conversation about the fire. The moon 
had risen, but afforded little light, in consequence 
of floating clouds, from which occasionally fell a 
small drizzling rain. In a few minutes the sig- 
nal would have been given for the troops to turn 
out, when the Indian rifles were heard, and the at- 
tack commenced. The Indian warriors had crept 
up close to the sentries, with the design to rush 
forward and despatch them before they could fire. 
One of them however discovered an Indian creep- 
ing towards him through the grass, and fired. 
This was immediately followed by the Indian yell, 
and a desperate charge upon the rear angle of the 
left flank of the encampment. The firing at once 
became very severe ; but as soon as the men could 
be formed and posted, they returned it with spirit, 
and maintained their ground with desperate valor. 
All the camp fires were immediately extinguish- 
ed, their light being more useful to the Indians 
than to our men. 



62 



goons, who occupied the centre, were kept as a 
reserve, and were directed in case of attack, to 
parade dismounted, and wait for orders. After 
reconnoitreing the whole ground, the governor 
called (he officers together, and gave particular di- 
rections to each how to draw up and dispose of 
his men, in case of attack, and what measures to 
take under all the circumstances which were like- 
ly to occur. After receivino; these orders the offi- 
cers retired to rest, much dissatisfied at the pros- 
pect of returning home without a battle. 

Indeed, there was not a single individual in the 
camp, who believed that an attack would be made 
that night. The governor and those officers who 
were best acquainted with the Indian mode of 
fighting were the least apprehensive on this point. 
They did not believe that the Indians would dare 
to attack by night, an army so favorably posted ; 
for in the dark they lose the peculiar advantage 
they possess in the day time, from the accuracy of 
their rifles, and their dexterity in covering them- 
selves with trees, logs, and bushes. The muskets, 
buck-shot, and bayonets of a body of firm and 
disciplined troops, must in a night attack, always 
prevail over the rifles of the Indians. The gov- 
ernor indeed expected, that sooner or later, the 
prophet would attack him by treachery or ambus- 
cade ; but he supposed that some opportunity 
would be selected more promising of success. 
But whatever opinions were entertained as to the 
likelihood of an attack, every possible precaution 
was taken to be prepared for it- The camp 
was surrounded by a chain of sentinels, posted at 
such a distance as to give notice of the approach 
of the enemy in time for the troops to take their 
position, yet not so distant as to prevent their re- 



63 



treat, if overpowered by numbers. In civilized 
warfare, picquets or detached guards, are frequent- 
ly posted at a considerable distance from the camp, 
and on the roads leadinor to it. Against Indians 
such guards are useless, for they do not require a 
road on which to move, and these detached par- 
ties would always be cut off by the enemy's supe- 
rior adroitness. 

In conformity to a general order, the troops 
went to rest with their clothes and accoutrements 
on, their muskets loaded by their sides, and their 
bayonets fixed. The officers were ordered to sleep 
in the same manner. It was the governor's con- 
stant practice to be completely ready to mount 
his horse at a moment's warning. The night 
passed without any disturbance, and the governor 
and his aids rose about a quarter of four, and were 
sitting in conversation about the fire. The moon 
had risen, but afforded little light, in consequence 
of floating clouds, from which occasionally fell a 
small drizzling rain. In a few minutes the sig- 
nal would have been given for the troops to turn 
out, when the Indian rifles were heard, and the at- 
tack commenced. The Indian warriors had crept 
up close to the sentries, with the design to rush 
forward and despatch them before they could fire. 
One of them however discovered an Indian creep- 
ing towards him through the grass, and fired. 
This was immediately followed by the Indian yell, 
and a desperate charge upon the rear angle of the 
left flank of the encampment. The firing at once 
became very severe; but as soon as the men could 
be formed and posted, they returned it with spirit, 
and maintained their ground with desperate valor. 
All the camp fires were immediately extinguish- 
ed, their light being more useful to the Indians 
than to our men. 



I- 



64 



The governor immediately mounted his horse 
and proceeded to the point of attack, which he 
strengthened by two companies drawn from the 
centre of the rear line. A heavy fire now com- 
menced all along the left flank, upon the whole 
of the front and right flank, and upon a part of 
the rear line. The Indians advanced arid re- 
treated by a rattling noise made with deer's hoofs. 
They fought with enthusiasm, and seemed deter- 
mined upon victory. The governor employed him- 
self in encouraging and supporting the men at 
those points where they were hardest pressed. 
He ordered several changes of position on the part 
of particular corps, such as the circumstances of 
the contest seemed to require, in all of which the 
men were conducted and formed by himself As 
daylight appeared, the left flank, which was the 
most accessible part of the encampment, was 
strenfjthened by troops drawn from the front and 
rear line. The dragoons were now mounted, and, 
covered by them, a successful charge was made 
upon the enemy, by the troops on the left flank. 
The Indians were driven into a swamp, through 
which the cavalry could not penetrate. At the 
same time a charge was made on the right flank, 
and the Indians in that quarter put to flight ; after 
which they disappeared from the field, and the bat- 
tle ended. 

The prophet, it was said, took no active part in 
the fight, but remained secure on a neighboring 
eminence, singing a war song. He had promised 
his followers that the Great Spirit would charm the 
bullets of the Americans, so that they would drop 
harmless ; and that the Indians should have light, 
while their opponents were involved in thick dark- 
ness. Being told that his men were falling, he 



65 

bade them fight on, and they would soon see the 
fulfilment of his prophecies. Tecumthe was not 
present at this engagement, being on a visit to the 
soutiiern Indians, whom he hoped to engage in his 
confederacy against the United States. 

Governor Harrison's forces consisted of about 
eight hundred men. The killed amounted to sixty- 
one, and the wounded were about double that 
number. Amoncr the killed were two or three dis- 
tinguished citizens of Kentucky, who had volun- 
teered for the expedition. The governor himself 
had a narrow escape, the hair of his head being 
cut by a rifle ball. The Indians, whose force was 
supposed to be about eight hundred or a thousand, 
left thirtyeight warriors dead upon the field, and 
buried many in the town, who were removed du- 
rincr the battle. Their loss was at least as great as 
that of the Americans — a very unusual or rather 
an unprecedented thing. It is the custom of the 
Indians, always to avoid a close action, and from 
their dexterity in hiding themselves, but few can 
be killed in any battle. At St. Clair's defeat, it is 
believed that not ten Indians were killed, and at 
Braddock's, still fewer. Even in the decisive victory 
gained by Gen. Wayne, but very i^ew of the In- 
dians fell. At Tippecanoe, they displayed a pecu- 
liar boldness — a conduct attributed to the confi- 
dence with which the prophet had inspired them, 
and to the distinguished bravery of the Winneba- 
go warriors. 

The battle of Tippecanoe, gave rise to an in- 
finite deal of discussion, in the West, and through- 
out the whole country. The conduct of the gov- 
ernor in consenting to a cessation of hostilities, in 
the selection of a camp, and in the conduct of the 
battle, were criticised and canvassed in every form. 
6* 



66 



Some, from a desire to show their superior sagaci- 
ty, after the affair was ended ; others instigated by 
a hostility to the administration under whose or- 
ders Governor Harrison had acted ; and others 
who had lost friends in the action, and whose 
' judgment was perverted by their private grief, 
blamed this, that, and the other point of the gov- 
ernor's conduct; and Colonel Boyd, the comman- 
der of the regiment of regular troops, made an at- 
tempt to carry off all the honor of the victory — an 
attempt, however, in which he was resisted by the 
whole body of his own officers. 

After all these discussions, the public mind set- 
tled down into the opinion that the governor had 
acted with the greatest energy, prudence, and sa- 
gacity ; and that to his coolness and courage, the 
defeat of the Indians was to be ascribed. The 
Legislature of Indiana approved iiis conduct in the 
highest terms; and the Legislature of Kentucky, 
havina voted to so in mourning for the citizens of 
that State slain in the battle, on the motion of 
John J. Crittenden, now a distinoruished member of 
the Senate of the United States, resolved, " That 
in the late campaign against the Indians on the 
Wabash, Governor W. H. Harrison, has, in the 
opinion of this Legislature, behaved like a hero, a 
patriot, and a general ; and that, for his cool, de- 
liberate, skilful and gallant conduct in the late bat- 
tle of Tippecanoe, he well deserves the warmest 
thanks of the nation." 

The battle was spoken of in President Madison's 
message, communicating the official account of it 
to Congress, as follows. " While it is deeply to 
be lamented that so many valuable lives have been 
lost in the action, Congress will see with satisfac- 
tion, the dauntless spirit and fortitude, victoriously 



67 

displayed by every description of troops engaged, 
as well as the collected firmness which distin- 
guished their commander on an occasion requiring 
the utmost exertion of valor and discipline." 

To these official attestations, let us here add the 
testimony of a private soldier of the fourth regi- 
ment. It is taken from a work published in 1816, 
in Keene, New Hampshire, entitled, "A Journal 
of two Campaigns of the fourth Regiment of 
United States Infantry, by Adam Walker, a pri- 
vate in the fourth Regiment." Mr Walker was a 
person with whom Governor Harrison had no ac- 
quaintance, and he may be supposed to express the 
opinion of the common soldiers employed in that 
expedition. On page 31, speaking of the battle 
of Tippecanoe, he says, " General Harrison re- 
ceived a shot through the rim of his hat. In the 
heat of the action his voice was frequently heard 
and easily distinguished, giving his orders in the 
same calm, cool and collected manner, with which 
we had been used to receive them on drill or pa- 
rade. The confidence of the troops in the Gene- 
ral, was unlimited," 

Again, speaking of a small portion of the mili- 
tia who had become dissatisfied, at being detained 
from home longer than they expected, this writer 
observes, " He, (i. e. General Harrison,) appeared 
not disposed to detain any man against his inclina- 
tion, being endowed by nature with a heart as hu- 
mane as brave ; in his frequent addresses to the 
militia, his eloquence was formed to persuade; ap- 
peals were made to reason as well as feeling, and 
never were made in vain." 

The whole of the day of the battle, was spent in 
taking care of the wounded, burying the dead, and 
fortifying the camp. The next day the dragoons 



6B 



and mounted riflemen were sent to reconnoitre the 
town. They found it fortified with much care and 
labor, but totally deserted. A great quantity of 
corn was left behind, all the household utensils, 
and even a few guns, and some ammunition. The 
town liad evidently been abandoned in great haste. 
Some dead were found in it, and quite a number 
partially buried in the gullies adjacent. Every 
thing that could l)e useful to the army was removed, 
and the town was then burned. 

On the morning of the 7th, the troops were put 
in motion on their return. It required every wagon 
to transport the wounded. The governor called 
the officers together, explained to them the neces- 
sity of destroying the baggage, and set the example 
by ordering his own camp furniture to be broken 
and burned. The army arrived without interrup- 
tion at the block house on the Wabash, where the 
wounded were embarked in boats, and the rest of 
the troops continued on by land to Vincennes. 

In December following, deputies from various 
tribes arrived at Vincennes to endeavor to accom- 
modate matters ; and in March there came another 
delegation from all the late hostile tribes except the 
Shawnese. It was represented that since the bat- 
tle of Tippecanoe, the prophet had been a wan- 
derer, attended by only a few followers, and that 
his influence was very much diminished. Every 
thing promised fair for a settlement of difliculties ; 
but several circumstances conspired to prevent it. 
The first was the return of Tecumthe from the 
south, who again took the lead, and stirred up the 
Indians to resistance. A second obstacle in the 
way of a satisfactory arrangement was the with- 
drawal of the regular toops which had been sta- 
tioned at Vincennes, and whose presence had 



69 



served as a check to the hostile tribes. But what 
had the greatest influence of all, and tended 
wholly to neutralize the advantages which might 
otherwise have been derived from the victory of 
Tippecanoe, was the commencement of the war 
with Great Britain, by which mean- the Indians 
were encouraged and enabled to renew hostilities, 
and Tecumthe found an ally able and eager to 
second all his plans. 



CHAPTER V. 



War with Great Britain — Circumstances which led to the ap- 

poinlmeni of Harrison to command the Northwestern array — 
Extent of his authority — DifficuUies to be encountered — Harri- 
son's influence with the Militia — Anecdotes- Plan of the Cam- 
paign — Obstacles in the way — Harrison recommends the con- 
struction of a llat on Lake Erie — Battle of the River Raisin 
— End of the Campaign — Expedition against the Indians. 

Immediately after the declaration of war 
against Great Britain, Governor Harrison deter- 
mined to put the Indiana territory in the best pos- 
ture of defence, which circumstances admitted ; 
and he left Vincennes for the eastern part of the 
territory, for the purpose of reviewing and disci- 
plining the militia. During this absence from the 
seat of government, he visited Cincinnati, where 
his family then was : and while there he received 
a letter from Governor Scott, of Kentucky, urging 
him to come to Frankfort, in order to consult and 
advise respecting the disposition of the Kentucky 
volunteers, assembled for the protection of the 
Northwestern frontier. He went accordingly, and 



70 



was received at Frankfort with military honors, and 
the greatest enthusiasm on the part of the people. 
Soon after his arrival, orders were received from 
the war department, placing a portion of the Ken- 
tucky quota under his command for the protection 
of the territory of which he was governor. The 
remainder were ordered to concentrate at George- 
town, for the purpose of marching from that place 
to reinforce General Hull, who was already get- 
ting into difficulty, and calling urgently for more 
troops. 

While the governor was employed in getting 
ready the Kentucky troops which were to march 
to Vincennes, letters were received from Detroit, 
from several officers in the army, written a few | 
days previous to the attack upon that place by the \ 
British, statingr their entire want of confidence in ' 
their commander, and their apprehension of some 
fiital disaster from his miserable arrangements, and 
apparent imbecility and cowardice. These letters 
also declared it to be the common wish of the ar- 
my that Governor Harrison should accompany the 
expected reinforcements. 

Governor Harrison was very popular in Kentuc- 
ky, and the wish thus expressed by the officers of 
Hull's army was warmly concurred in by the Ken- 
tucky volunteers. But the authority he had re- 
ceived from the President did not entitle him to 
command any troops not intended to operate in the 
territories of Indiana and Illinois. 

The feeling however in favor of his appointment 
to the command was very strong ; and there were 
many inducements which weighed powerfully with 
Governor Scott to confer it upon him. But there 
were difficulties in the way, from the fact that he 
was not a "citizen of Kentucky, and from other 



71 



circumstances connected with the organization of 
the troops. In this dilemma Governor Scott called 
together a caucus of influential persons, composed 
of Mr Shelby, the governor elect, Henry Clay, 
speaker of the House of Representatives in Con- 
gress, Thomas Todd, judge of the Federal Circuit 
Court, and some others. Tliese persons, after 
consultation, unanimously resolved to advise the 
governor to give Harrison a brevet commission of 
major general in the Kentucky militia, and to au- 
thorise him to take command of the detachment 
marching to Detroit. This was accordingly done. 
The appointment was hailed with approbation by 
the citizens generally, and especially by the volun- 
teers, who had already arrived at Cincinnati on 
their march to the north. The news of Hull's 
surrender, which was received just at this time, 
caused the appointment of Harrison to be regarded 
with feelings of still warmer approbation. 

General Harrison accepted the appointment, and 
entered upon the duties of it with great zeal and 
spirit. But his operations after a short time, were 
interrupted by the receipt of letters from the war 
department written in ignorance both of the sur- 
render of Hull and of what had been done in 
Kentucky, appointing General Winchester to take 
command of the troops marching to Detroit. At 
the same time Harrison received an appointment 
of briaadier-ffeneral in the service of the United 
States, which appointment, however, he declined 
to accept, being desirous that the war department 
should be first informed of the arrangements by 
which he had been appointed to the command of 
the Kentucky troops. In the meantime these 
troops had marched to the Northwestern frontier 
of Ohio, and General Harrison, — having first sue- 



72 



ceeded in relieving Fort Wayne, which had been 
besieged by the Indians, and in destroying the 
Indian towns on the Wabash, — resigi^ed the com- 
mand to General Winchester, who had arrived at 
the camp. 

General Winchester had been an officer in the 
revolutionary army, and was now advanced in life. 
He was a wealthy citizen of Tennessee, where he 
had lived for many years in a style of elegant 
luxury and ease, little calculated to season him 
for a northern campaign in the woods. His arri- 
val caused great uneasiness among the troops. 
They had confidently expected that General Har- 
rison would be confirmed in the command ; and 
by this time his aQable and courteous address, and 
his indefatitrable attention to the duties of his sta- 
tion, had secured for him the confidence of every 
soldier in the army. The volunteers especially, 
were very loud in their expressions of dissatisfac- 
tion at the chancre of command ; and General Har- 
rison had to exert his utmost influence to reconcile 
the army to it. At last the men consented to 
march under Winchester, with a confident belief, 
however, that as soon as the case was understood 
by the war department, General Harrison would 
be reinstated in command. 

This expectation of the soldiers was soon real- 
ized. In a short time General Harrison received a 
despatch informing him that he had been aj)point- 
ed by the President to the command of the North- 
western army, with orders to protect the western 
frontier, retake Detroit, destroy the British estab- 
lisiiments at Tvlalden, and to penetrate as far as 
possible into Canada, In a letter to Governor 
Shelby, of Kentucky, from the Secretary of War, 
of simultaneous date, it was stated, that to meet 



73 

existing contingencies, " it had been determined 
to vest the command of all the forces on the west- 
ern and northwestern frontiers in an officer whose 
military character and knowledge of the country 
appear to be combined with the public confi- 
dence. " General Harrison," adds the letter, 
" has accordingly been appointed to the chief com- 
mand, with authority to employ officers, and to 
draw from the public stores, and every other prac- 
ticable source, all the means of effisctuating the 
object of his command." 

The authority thus bestowed upon General Har- 
rison, was more extensive than was ever entrusted 
to any other officer in the military service of the 
United States, Washington and Greene alone ex- 
cepted. He was to provide for the safety of the 
whole Northwestern Frontier, from the confines 
of Pennsylvania and Ohio, to the territory of Mis- 
souri ; and in addition he was to carry on offen- 
sive operations against the enemy for the recov- 
ery of the posts and territory which Hull had sur- 
rendered into their hands, and for the conquest of 
Maiden, their principal depot and head quarters in 
Upper Canada. 

Every circumstance almost conspired to sur- 
round this command with the most formidable diffi- 
culties. The troops with which the operations 
were to be carried on, consisted almost entirely of 
volunteers and militia from Kentucky and the oth- 
er western States. These men were altogether 
unused to military service of any kind, without the 
slightest tincture of discipline, and wholly indis- 
posed by all their feelings and habits, to that im- 
plicit obedience so necessary in an army. The 
enthusiasm which led them to volunteer, quickly 
evaporated amid the extreme hardships and priva- 

7 



74 



tions to which they were exposed ; they were al- 
ways more ready to give advice than to obey or- 
ders ; and with the exception of their courage, 
which was undeniable, and that personal hardi- 
hood without which they never could have endur- 
ed the hardships of that service, they possessed 
but few military qualities, and furnished very in- 
tractable materials for the formation of an army. 
The officers were as ignorant of discipline as the 
men ; and were wholly unacquainted with the 
principles of military science. In the most deli- 
cate and important parts of the service, they were 
able to afford the commander-in-chief hardly any 
assistance ; and indeed, throuofh io-norance or in- 
attention, often placed him in the most embarrassing 
situations. What aggravated all these difficulties 
was, the extreme deficiency and confusion of those 
departments of the service, of which it was the 
business to furnish supplies of clothing and provis- 
ions. There was a great deficiency even of arms 
and military stores. Almost every thing for the 
supply of the army, provisions excepted, had to be 
transported from the Atlantic states ; and owing 
to the limited means of transportation which 
existed in those days, and the constant failure of 
contractors to fulfil what they had undertaken, 
there was almost always a deficiency, which often 
became alarming. 

The posts which General Harrison was ordered 
to recover, were separated from the frontier settle- 
ments by a swampy forest two hundred miles in 
extent, without roads or inhabitants, and in many 
places totally impassable by wagons. 

The enemy he had to encounter consisted of 
trained and disciplined British troops, well supplied 
with every thing necessary, and aided by a large 



75 



body of Indians, who were supported by British 
rations, and commanded by a chief of the greatest 
sagacity, energy and courage. The enemy also 
had tlie double advantage of being concentrated 
within a small compass, and of commanding Lake 
Erie by means of a ileet ; while the vast extent of 
the American frontier presented a great number 
of points of attack, any of which the enemy could 
select at pleasure, and by an harassing warfare, 
distract the attention anddelav the advance of the 
American force. 

To any one who will take into consideration all 
these circumstances, it will be sufficiently obvious 
that the command to which General Harrison was 
appointed, demanded energy, perseverance, and 
indefatigable activity ; and that no man could suc- 
ceed in it who did uot join to military talents of a 
high order, a knowledge of men and things, and a 
fertility of resource, far beyond what ordinarily 
suffices for a military commander. He had an 
army to discipline, and in fact to create ; this same 
army he was obliged to clothe and feed ; and to 
this was joined the still more difficult task of keep- 
ing it obedient and contented in the midst of hard- 
ships and sufferings of no ordinary character ; all 
this he had to perform besides protecting the fron- 
tier, fighting the enemy, and the ordinary duties of 
a commanding general. 

The authority conferred upon him was co-ex- 
tensive with the difficulties of his position. He 
was authorised to make appointments in all the va- 
rious departments of the army, and the officers 
whom he thus selected were confirmed by the pres- 
ident. He was at liberty to draw on the govern- 
ment for money to any amount, and to make any 
contracts which he might deem expedient for the 



76 



supply of his troops. These extraordinary pow- 
ers he exercised with energy, but at the same time 
with moderation and prudence; nor did he ever 
transcend the respect he owed to the laws, or 
abuse in any way the high trust thus confided to 
him. 

This appointment, it deserves to be remarked, 
was obtained by General Harrison by means of no 
party or personal influence. It was bestowed 
upon him, in compliance with the spontaneous and 
almost unanimous wishes of the western people, 
and by a president, who as Secretary of State un 
der Jefferson, had kept up a constant correspon- 
dence with him in relation to the territorial affairs 
of Indi-ana, and who had thus enjoyed an ample 
opportunity of estimating his capacity and char- 
acter. 

The first grand object to be accomplished by 
General Harrison was, to maintain that influence 
over the troops to which he owed his appointment. 
His good sense, as well as his experience, taught 
him that militia — freemen serving voluntary out 
of a spirit of patriotism — did not expect, nor de- 
serve, nor would they submit to, the same kind of 
treatment which is practised towards mercenary 
troops. These volunteers consisted in general of 
the most high-spirited young men from among a 
free population ; they had talent, intelligence, and 
feelings of the most sensitive kind ; and their lead- 
ers were the popular men of the districts to which 
they belonged. It would have shown a bad heart, 
as well as a poor knowledge of human nature, to 
have assumed towards such soldiers an arrogant 
bearing, and to have attempted to compel their 
obedience by severity and rigor. General Harri- 
son proceeded in a different method. He observed 
a strict military etiquette, and required a prompt 



77 



and exact attention to his orders, from those un- 
der his command, l)iit at the same time he always 
treated his men with respect, coiisiderinof every 
soldier as a patriot who was making sacrifices for 
his country. It was his practice to win obedi- 
ence by kindness, and to enforce the performance 
of duty by appeals to reason and the feelings. 
During the whole of his command he never suf- 
fered a degrading punishment to be inflicted upon 
a militia soldier. He had no occasion to shoot 
deserters, or to floff the neorlis;ent. Like a father 
among his children he often gave affectionate ad- 
monitions in private, which precluded the necessi- 
ty of a public exposure. When the misconduct 
or discontent was not confined merely to individu- 
als, but pervaded whole corps, he availed himself 
of his remarkable talent for extemporaneous speak- 
ing, and by a persuasive eloquence which acted at 
once upon their heads and their hearts, he re- 
called the troops to a sense of their duty, and a 
determination to perform it. 

A striking instance of the infiuence he was thus 
able to exert, was exhibited shortly after he took 
command of the army. Having arrived late at 
night at the encampment at Fort Defiance, he was 
waited upon by the officers of one of the Ken- 
tucky regiments, who informed him that their 
men, exhausted by the hardships of the service, 
and disappointed in the expectation of an imme- 
diate encrasement with the enemy, had resolved to 
return home ; and that all the entreaties or argu- 
ments of their officers could not avail to restrain 
them. In fact their appeals had been answered 
only by insult, and they called upon the general 
to interfere at once, as the only officer likely to 
bring back the mutineers to their duty. 



'« 



78 



The general declined to do anything that night, 
but gave orders that the next morning the drums 
should beat the alarm instead of the revcllie. 
This brought all the troops to their arms ; and in 
conformity to a previous order they were drawn 
up in a hollow square. General Harrison now ap- 
peared on parade, much to the surprise of the 
troops, who were ignorant of his arrival. He pro- 
ceeded to harangue them on the subject of the 
campaign, and presently alluded to the difficul- 
ties which existed in one of the Kentucky regi- 
ments. It was fortunate, he said, that he had 
found out this dissatisfaction thus early in the 
campaign. It was now easy, without any injury 
to the service, to dismiss those who were discon- 
tented because while makincr war in the woods, 
ihoy could not enjoy all the luxuries of peace and 
home. They were at liberty to return, — he only 
pitied them for the reception they would be likely 
to meet with when they arrived in Kentucky ! 

The influence of this address was powerful and 
instantaneous. Scott, the senior Kentucky colo- 
nel, called out to his troops to show their attach- 
ment to the service and their general by giving 
^hree cheers. To this appeal the regiment in- 
stantly responded, as did the regiment of Colonel 
Lewis to a similar call from him. Allen, the 
commander of the discontented regiment, now 
demanded of his men whether they would be be- 
hind the rest of the Kentuckians in patriotism 
and fortitude? They replied with the same 
shout as the rest, and from that time, the project 
of returning was heard of no more. 

That the hardships which jtroduced these dis- 
contents were by no means imaginary, will appear 
from the following account of a night's encamp- 



79 

nient during Harrison's march to Defiance, on 
the occasion above alluded to. He had received 
information — which proved however to be un- 
founded — that the troops at Defiance were threat- 
ened with an attack from a combined force of 
British and Indians; and he proceeded in haste 
from St. Mary's to their relief. The troops being 
on a forced march, were not suflfered to halt till 
dark. On the night referred to, they encamped on 
the banks of the Au Glaise, in a level beach woods, 
the ground nearly covered with water from the 
rain which fell in torrents all night. They had 
no axes, and could only procure such fuel as was 
furnished by the dry limbs scattered on the 
ground. Those who could find a dry log against 
which to kindle a fire were fortunate indeed. 
Many sat without fire, upon their saddles, leaning 
against the trunks of trees, and endeavoring to 
sleep. Beig separated from the baggage, few had 
any thing to eat or drink. The men became 
peevish, and were not sparing in complaints. To 
check this bad feeling, and give an example of 
cheerfulness, the general, who sat with his staff by 
a small fire, wrapped in his cloak, and receiving 
the rain as it fell, called on one of his officers to 
sing a humorous Irish song. Another officer sang 
a song, with the following chorus: 

" Now's the time for mirth and glee, 
Sinn- and lauah and dance with me !" 

The ludicrous contrast of this song with their 
actual situation, put the men into quite a good 
humor. Indeed this chorus afterwards became 
proverbial in the army, and was always raised upon 
occasion of the greatest suffering and fatigue. 

It was by means like these, that General Harri- 
son always succeeded in controlling the feelings 



80 



of his men, and inspiring them with a spirit of 
cheerfulness and obedience ; and it is worthy of 
remark, that although several detached expeditions 
within the range of his command, were totally de- 
feated by the insubordination of the men who com- 
posed them, and their refusal to obey orders, 
nothing of the kind ever occurred when he was 
present. 

It was late in September before General Harri- 
son received his appointment. The administration 
were exceedingly desirous that he should accom- 
plish the chief objects of it, viz : the recapture of 
Detroit, the conquest of Maiden, and the expulsion 
of the British force from Upper Canada, — during 
that campaign ; and the greatest efforts were made 
for that purpose. 

The army placed under his command consisted 
nominally of ten thousand men ; but the effective 
force never exceeded six thousand. It was com- 
posed of the Kentucky regiments already in the 
field, a body of Ohio militia also already under 
arms, and two brigades of volunteers, which were 
to be marched, one from Virginia, and the other 
from Pennsylvania. A train of artillery was to be 
supplied from Pittsburg. 

The plan of the campaign formed by General 
Harrison was as follows. He stationed the left 
wing of the army, the command of which had been 
entrusted to General Winchester,* and which con- 
sisted principally of the Kentucky troops, at Defi- 
ance. The right wing, which was to be composed 
of the Virginia and Pennsylvania brigades, of 

* When Harrison was appointed to the command of the 
Northwestern army, Winchester had his choice to remain 
with that army, or to join the forces on the Niagara frontier. 
He chose to remain. 



81 



which Harrison himself assumed the immediate 
command, was to concentrate at Upper Sandusky. 
The centre corps consisted of Ohio troops, com- 
manded by General Tupper, and was stationed at 
fort McArthur. At these several points supplies 
of provisions and stores were to be accumulated ; 
and from these points the army was to move to the 
rapids of the Maumee, where all the corps were to 
be united, and whence thev were to move forward 
for ulterior operations against the British and In- 
dian enemy. 

Having made all the arrangements in his power 
along the front of his position, the general now has- 
tened into the rear to push forward the supplies 
essential to the campaign. The Kentucky troops, 
with characteristic thoughtlessness, had left home 
in summer dresses ; few of them had any blankets ; 
and all were unprovided with the clothing neces- 
sary for a winter campaign. To supply this defi- 
ciency was not easy. The articles needed were 
not to be purchased without the greatest difficulty ; 
and the general found himself under the necessity 
of appealing to the patriotism of the Kentuckians 
to contribute and forward these necessary supplies. 
The appeal was not made in vain. But it was 
vei7 late before the soldiers benefitted by it. 

It soon became obvious that if the recovery of 
Detroit was to be accomplished during that cam- 
paign, it could only be by continuing operations 
through the winte: , and taking advantage of the 
frozen ground to forward supplies, and of the fro- 
zen surface of the lake to cross over and attack 
Maiden. Indeed the difficulties by which the ex- 
pedition was surrounded seemed to increase every 
day. The three points above mentioned, upon 
which the supplies of the army were to be accu- 



82 



mulated, viz. Defiance, fort McArthur, and Upper 
Sandusky, were considerably advanced beyond the 
line of settlements, and the roads by which alone 
they could be approached, were in a most terrible 
condition, which was aggravated by the excessive 
rains of the season. The destruction of pack- 
horses, and the waste and loss which occurred in 
the transportation of stores, were enormous, and 
though vast sums were spent, but little was accom- 
plished. But to get forward the stores to these 
points, was in fact only the commencement of dif- 
ficulties. Those at Defiance might indeed be 
transported to the rapids of the Maumee by a wa- 
ter communication down the river ; but those ac- 
cumulated at the other two depots, were to be 
carried across the Mack swamp^ an almost impassa- 
ble barrier which stretched along parallel to the 
Maumee from the Au Glaise to lake Erie. This 
terrible swamp, it seemed almost impossible to 
cross, except when it was hardened by the frosts 
of winter. 

It soon occured to General Harrison, that the 
best and most economical way to accomplish the 
objects of the campaign was, to build a fleet on 
lake Erie, and having obtained the command of 
the lake, to be able to move the army and its 
stores by water. The necessity of thus getting 
the command of the lake, he early suggested in 
his correspondence with the war department. " Ad- 
mitting," he wrote, " that Maiden and Detroit are 
both taken, Macinaw and St. Josephs will both re- 
main in the hands of the enemy, until we can 
create a force capable of contending with the ves- 
sels which the British have on lake Erie, and 
which they will be able to maintain, so long as the 
canoe route by Grand River and lake Nipissin 



83 



shall remain to them, and for six months longer." 
Again, urging the economy of this mode of opera- 
tion, he says, in the same letter, " I should not he- 
sitate to say, that if a small proportion of the sums 
which will be expended in the quartermaster's 
department, in the active prosecution of the cam- 
paign during the winter, was devoted to obtaining 
the command of lake Erie, the wishes of the 
government, to their utmost extent, could be ac- 
complished without difficulty, in the months of 
April and May. Maiden, Detroit, and Macinaw, 
would fall in rapid succession." In a subsequent 
letter he still urges this same idea. " Should our 
offensive operations be suspended until spring, it is 
my decided opinion that the most effectual and 
cheapest plan will be, to obtain command of lake 
Erie. This being once effected, every difficulty 
will be removed. An army of four thousand men, 
landed on the north side of the lake below Maiden, 
will soon reduce that place, retake Detroit, and 
with the aid of the fleet proceed down the lake to 
co-operate with the army from Niagara." 

Soon after, he writes again as follows. '* I have 
no means of estimating correctly the cost of a na- 
val armament, capable of effecting this object, but 
from my knowledge of the cost of transporting sup- 
plies through a swampy wilderness, I do believe 
that the expense which will be incurred in six 
weeks in the spring, in an attempt to transport the 
provisions for the army along the road leading 
from the Rapids to Detroit, would build and equip 
the vessels for this purpose." 

The Virginia brigade, which was to form a part 
Harrison's army, did not approach the scene of ac- 
tion till late in November ; and it was December 
before the Pennsylvania troops arrived at Upper 



84 

Sandusky. About the same time arrived the train 
of artillery which had been promised, but in which 
the general was much disappointed, many of the 
guns being only six pounders, and the carriages of 
the whole extremely defective, and hardly fit for 
service. 

Though Harrison was satisfied that the command 
of the lake was essential to the entire success of 
the enterprise in which he was engaged, yet as 
the war department seemed to consider the reco- ' 
very of Detroit that winter, an object of much im- 
portance, he was resolved to persevere in the 
attempt. Detroit he felt certain of taking at all 
events, and if the frost should secure him a pas- > 
sage across the lake, he expected to be able to gain | 
possession of Maiden also. 

Having now collected all the troops of the right ' 
wing at Sandusky, the artillery having arrived, and 
a large store of provisions being accumulated, or- 
ders were sent to General Winchester to move 
' down from Defiance to the Rapids, to which point 
it was designed that the whole army should shortly 
march. This movement was accomplished by 
Winchester on the 10th of January, 1813 ; but he < 
took no proper means to inform General Harrison 
of it. When he left the Rapids on the 30th of 
December, he despatched a message with informa- 
tion of the fact, which did not reach its destination 
till the 11th of January. Orders were immedi- 
ately issued for sending forward a part of the artil- 
lery and a quantity of provisions. On the 16th of 
January, the general learned, not directly from 
Winchester, but indirectly from General Perkins, 
who commanded a body of troops stationed at 
Lower Sandusky, that Winchester had arrived at 
the Rapids, and that he was meditating a movement 



85 



against the enemy ^ for which purpose he solicited 
a battalion from General Perkins. This informa- 
tion alarmed Harrison greatly. He immediately 
made every exertion to get forward the artillery, 
stores and provisions, — a business, however, which 
went on very slowly, on account of the extreme 
badness of the roads. 

In the meantime Winchester had undertaken an 
enterprise which turned out very disastrously, and 
which destroyed all hopes of reducing Detroit or 
MaldeiTTIiat winter. 

On the river Raisin, which empties into the head 
of lake Erie, within the boundaries of Michigan, 
was a small French settlement, the inhabitants of 
which sent messengers to General Winchester at 
the Rapids, requesting his protection against a 
British and Indian force of about four hundred men, 
from whom, now that their neighborhood was likely 
to become the seat of war, they apprehended the 
destruction of their town, its inhabitants being ge- 
nerally favorable to the American cause. French- 
town — for so the settlement was called, — was thirty- 
miles from the Rapids, while it was only eighteen 
miles from Maiden, the head-quarters of the 
British, from which place it was easily accessible 
over the frozen surface of the lake. 

By the advice of a council of officers which 
Winchester called together, he resolved to send on 
a part of his troops to the river Raisin ; and on the 
17ih of Januaiy, Colonels Lewis and Allen march- 
ed at the head of about sLx hundred and sixty men. 
The next day they reached Frenchtown, and after 
a sharp action with the forces of the enemy, which 
had possession of the place, they drove them out and 
obtained possession of it. Colonel Lewis, flushed 
with this success, resolved to hold the town, and he 
8 



8'6 

'despatched an express to Winchesser to inform him 
of his intention. This news raised a great ferment in 
Winchester's camp. It was evident that the situation 
of Lewis was critical, on account? of his vicinity to 
Maiden ; but all were eager for holding the town, 
and all were anxious to march for the pur- 
pose of reinforcing the advanced corps. Ac- 
cordingly, on the evening of the 19th, Winchester 
himself moved at the head of two hundred and fifty 
men, which was all the disposable force which the 
camp supplied, and arriving at Frenchtown on the 
night of the 20th, he assumed the chief command. 

The troops which Lewis had led, were encamped 
among garden pickets, sufficient to afford them 
some protection against musketry. The force 
which arrived under Winchester took their station 
in an open field, without any cover. During the 
whole of the 21st, notwithstanding the dangerous 
position of the troops, nothing whatever was done 
towards fortifying the camp. General Winchester 
was informed by a Frenchman from Maiden that a 
strong force was about marching from that place 
to attack him. He paid no attention to this infor- 
mation, but took up his quarters in a house nearly 
a mile from the camp, and on the opposite side of 
the river. He even omitted to station any piquet 
guard on the road leading to Maiden. 

Just at day break, on the 22d, the British from 
Maiden, who had approached the camp unper- 
ceived, opened a heavy fire upon it from several 
pieces of artillery loaded with grape shot, at a dis- 
tance of three hundred yards. Though completely 
surpised, Lewis's men on the right, who were pro- . 
tected by the pickets about their encampment, 
maintained their ground with much spirit. But 
the detachment which had arrived under Winches- 
ter, on the left, being totally without any barrier 



87 

against the enemy, were soon thrown into confu- 
sion, and fled in disorder across the river, carrying 
with them a strong detachment from the right 
which had been sent to their aid. All attempts to 
rally the fugitives proved vain ; and the Indians 
who had gained their flank and rear, pursued and 
tonrxhawked them without mercy. Some few, 
among whom was General Winchester, were taken 
prisoners, and carried to the British camp. 

In the mean time the men behind the pickets 
maintained their position with much firmness, till 
at length the commander of the British force pro- 
cured an order from Winchester^ commanding 
them to surrender. As their ammunition was 
nearly exhausted, and as they had no hopes of be- 
ing reinforced, they thought it best to obey. They 
surrendered, however, on express condition of 
being protected against the fury of the Indians. 

The prisoners who were able to march, were 
taken off to Maiden ; the wounded were left be- 
hind in the houses of the village, with reiterated 
promises that the next day sleds should be sent for 
their removal, and that, in the mean time, they 
need apprehend no danger. The next morning, 
however, instead of the promised sleds, came a 
party of Indians, who murdered all these wounded 
prisoners in cold blood ! 

The defeat and massacre at the river Raisin 
producd an extraordinary sensation throughout the 
west, and particularly in Kentucky. The volun- 
teers were, many of them, persons of note ; as it 
was a long time before the surviving prisoners 
» were heard from, it was long uncertain who had 
escaped ; and there was scarcely a family in the 
state which had not a relative to mourn for. 

Some persons undertook to cast the blame of 
•• this affair upon General Harrison ; but without the 



88 

slightest foundation. It appears from what has 
been related, that the expedition was undertaken 
totally without his consent or knowledge. We 
will now proceed to state the steps which he 
took, so soon as he heard of the movement, to re- 
inforce General Winchester, and so to prevent the 
disastrous result above recounted. 

The morning after General Harrison heard that 
Winchester contemplated a movement against the 
€nemy, after sending forward the artillery and sup- 
phes, as above mentioned, he started for Lower 
Sandusky, having first despatched an express to 
the Rapids for information. This was the 17th. 
Arrived at Lower Sandusky, he found that Gene- 
ral Perkins had prepared a battalion, with a piece 
of artillery, in conformity with Winchester's re- 
quest, and the next day, the 18th, this corps 
marched under Major Cotgrove, for the rapids. 
Harrison determined to follow it, and to have a 
personal interview with Winchester, of the nature 
of whose intended movement against the enemy he 
was as yet entirely ignorant. Before he starte :, 
however, early on the morning of the 19th, he re- 
ceived a letter from Winchester informing him of 
the advance of Colonel Lewis upon Frenchtown. 
He thereupon ordered all the remaining disposable 
troops at Upper Sandusky to march for the Rapids 
as soon and as expeditiously as possible, and im- 
mediately proceeded thither himself. He started 
in a sleigh with General Perkins to overtake the 
battalion under Cotgrove, attended by a single ser- 
vant. As the sleigh went very slowly, from the 
roughness of the road, he took the horse of his 
servant and pushed on alone. Night came upon 
him in the midst of the swamp, which was so im- 
perfectly frozen that the horse sunk to his belly at 
every step. He had no recoui'se but to dismount 



99 

and lead his horse, jumping from one sod to ano- 
ther. Finally, with the assistance of a stragglinjj 
soldier whom he fortunately met, he succeeded in 
getting his horse through the swamp, and in 
reaching the camp of Cotgrove's battalion. 

Pushing on, he arrived at the Rapids early on 
the morning of the 20th, which place General Win- 
chester had left on the preceding evening, with all 
his disposable force. Nothing could now be done 
but to await the arrival of the troops on their march 
for the Rapids. As soon as the battalion under Cot- 
grove arrived, it was hurried forward to reinforce 
Winchester ; and upon the arrival of the remain- 
der of the troops from Upper Sandusky, on the 
evening of the 21st, the remainder of the Ken- 
tuckians, to the number of three hundred, whom 
Winchester had left behind to garrison his camp, 
were ordered to march for Frenchtown, which they 
did the next morning. On the forenoon of the 
22nd, information reached the Rapids of the attack 
on Winchester's camp. General Harrison imme- 
diately ordered all the remaining troops at the 
Rapids to march with all possible expedition, and 
himself hastened forward to overtake the Kentuck- 
ians who had marched the day before. This de- 
tachment was soon met by fugitives from the 
battle, from whom the total defeat of Winchester's 
forces were ascertained. A council of general and 
field officers was then held, by whom it was deci- 
ded that it would be imprudent and unnecessary to 
proceed further. Parties of the most active and 
enterprising men were sent forward to assist in 
bringing in those who might escape, and the rest 
■ of the reinforcement returned to the Rapids. 

It thus appears that everything possible was done 
by General Harrison towards reinforcing Winches- 
8* 



90 

ter in the dangerous position he had assumed at 
the river Raisin. The movement to that place was 
highly imprudent ; but its disastrous result seems 
to have been principally owing to the total negli- 
gence of Winchester and his officers, in taking 
those ordinary precautions which the nature of 
their position demanded. Had the camp been for- 
tified, as it might and ought to have been, the 
result of the battle would have been very different. 
At all events the troops might easily have held out 
till the arrival of succor from the Rapids. In this 
disastrous affair the Americans lost about nine hun- 
dred men in killed and prisoners. 

The troops at the Rapids, after Winchester's de- 
feat, amounted to less than nine hundred men. A 
<:ouncil of war unanimously recommended that this 
corps should fall back to Portage river, to cover the 
convoys which were advancing in that direction, 
and which had in charge all the artillery and much 
of the ammunition intended for the campaign. 
The position at the Rapids, which Winchester had 
chosen, was very objectionable. It was on the 
north bank of the river, and thus separated by a 
wide, swift, and sometimes impassable stream, 
from the road by which the convoys were approach- 
ing ; and what was still worse, the fortifications by 
which it was defended were constructed upon an 
extremely injudicious plan. 

Having removed his camp to Portage river. Ge- 
neral Harrison sent back expresses to hasten the 
advance of the troops, artillery and stores. But a 
violent rain which now commenced, and which 
continued till the frost was entirely out of the 
ground, greatly retarded all these operations. On 
the 30th of January, however. General Leftwich 
and the Virginia brigade with a part of the artillery 
■^^'-'S had been taken off the carriages and plac d 



91 

upon sleds, arrived at Portage river. The artil- 
lery had been sent off from Upper Sandusky on the 
17[h. It thus took fourteen days for only a pait of 
it to reach Portage river, a distance of fifty miles. 
The ammunition wagons were nearly all left be- 
hind, their wheels and axletrees being broken, or 
their teams exhausted. The road, for nearly the 
whole distance, was strewed with broken v/agons, 
dead or dying horses and oxen, and with small 
groups of militia, who having exhausted their 
strength in wading through the mud and water, 
had stopped and kindled fires on the few spots 
where they would burn. 

By the arrival of General Leftwich, the force at 
Portage river was increased to one thousand eight 
hundred men. But of these a great many were ill 
with pleurisies and other disorders of a similar 
I kind ; which indeed was not to be wondered at, for 
{ the greater part of the encampment was absolutely 
inundated by the rain. The troops bore their situ- 
ation with great patience, to which they were 
jl induced by the example of their commander. The 
f general's tent, placed in the centre, happened to be 
, in one of the lowest spots of the encampment. His 
' officers urged him to change it ; but he refused ta 
do so, observing that it was necessary that every 
military man should be content with the situation,. 
J which in the course of his duty fell to his lot. 

The following is an account of the hardships 
j which the soldiers of Leftwich encountered on their 
inarch to Portage river, extracted from a letter of 
one of the Petersburg volunteers. 

"In the best of the road it took us over the knees,, 
and often to the middle. The rain was incessant^ 
The Black swamp, (four miles from Portage river, and 
four in extent,) would have been considered impassa- 
ble by all but men determined to surmount ever^ diffi- 



)2 



*culty. In this swamp the water was about six inches 
deep on the ice, which was very rotten, often breaking 
through to the depth of four or five feet. 

" We encamped on wet ground in the midst of the 
rain. It was with difficuly we could raise fires. We 
had no tents, our clothes were wet, no axes, nothing 
to cook with, and very little to eat. When we went 
to sleep, it was on two logs laid close together to keep 
our bodies from the wet ground. Good God ! what a 
pliant being is man in adversitiy. The loftiest spirit 
that ever inhabited the human breast would have 
been tamed amid the difficulties that surrounded us." 

On the 1st of February, the forces at Portage 
river advanced again to the Rapids, — General Har- 
rison still entertaining a hope that he might yet be 
able to execute the great objects of the campaign 
the present winter. This was the season, in com- 
mon years, when the most intense frosts prevailed 
in this country, by which its lakes and swamps 
were rendered perfectly firm and secure for any 
kind of conveyance ; yet the weather still continued 
so warm and rainy, that the roads were entirely 
broken up, and travelling on the ice rendered alto- 
gether unsafe. The troops in the rear, and the 
necessary supplies were unable to reach the Ra- 
pids. The roads, indeed, had become absolutely 
impassable for any kind of carriage, and it was 
with the greatest difficulty that they could be tra- 
versed in any way. Under these circumstances 
General Harrison felt himself constrained to aban- 
don all thoughts of advancing against Maiden 
during the winter ; and he accordingly prepared 
to go into winter quarters at the Rapids. For this 
purpose an encampment was chosen on the south 
side of the river, which was strongly fortified, and 
called Ca7np Meigs, in honor of the patriotic go- 
x^ernor of Ohio. 

This determination was indeed rendered abso- 



93 



lutely necessary by the approaching expiration of 
the term of service of the Kentucky and Ohio 
troops. In a short time, only the Pennsylvania 
and Virginia forces remained, they having been en- 
gaged to serve till spring. 

It may be proper to mention here, that while 
employed in the various and arduous services to- 
wards the main object of the campaign, above 
briefly recounted, General Harrison organised no 
less than three distinct expeditions against the In- 
dian towns, rendered necessary for the protection of 
the frontier, and to keep the Indians in check. 
Two of these expeditions, one under Colonel 
Trimble, and the other under General Hopkins,, 
failed entirely, owing to the total insubordination 
of the troops ; the third under Colonel Campbell^ 
of the regular army, was more successful. 

About this time General Harrison received the 
appointment of major general in the array of the 
United Stages. Singular as it may appear, though 
exercising the most important command in the 
power of the Federal government to bestow, he 
had hitherto acted under the Kentucky commis- 
sion which he received when he first took the field. 
The delay in this appointment had created much 
uneasiness in the West ; and it being suggested 
that General Harrison might resign at the close of 
the campaign, public meetings were called, and ad- 
dresses sent to the President, requesting him to con- 
fer the rank of major general, and urging Harrison 
to accept. This demonstration of public opinion 
had its effect ; and the commission was presently 
forthcoming. 



94 



I 



CHAPTER VI. 

Second campaign of the Northwestern Army— Seige and defence 
of fort Meigs — Second seige of fort Meigs — Seige of fort Ste- 
venson — Perry's victory — Embarkation of the Army — Battle of 
the Thames — End of the campaign — Harrison resigns his com- 
mission. 

In reply to his letters announcing the surspen- 
sion of hostile operations, General Harrison receiv- 
ed answers from the Secretary of War, declaring 
his conviction of the necessity of that course, and 
stating the intentions of the administration with 
respect to the second campaign. 

The plan so often and so strongly urged by 
General Harrison, of obtaining command of Lake 
Erie, had been adopted ; and captain Perry had 
been ordered to Presque Isle, (now Erie) to super- 
intend the construction of a fleet, which it was 
supposed would be ready for service by the middle 
of May. The land forces destined to form the 
Northwestern army, were to consist of the 24th 
regiment of regular troops, then on its march 
from Tennessee, of the 17th and 19th regi- 
ments, which at that time had but few men enlist- 
ed, and of three regiments of twelve months' vol- 
unteers to be raised in Ohio and Kentucky. It 
was announced that in the opinion of the Secreta- 
ry the recruits who would be enlisted for the new 
regiments, would be able to protect the posts until 
offensive operations should commence. The em- 
ployment of militia was not to be resorted to till 
after it was ascertained that the regular troops 
could not be raised. 

It is evident, from this statement, that the ad- 
ministration had passed suddenly from the height 



! 95 

of profusion to an ill judged parsimony. With 
the merely nominal forces above mentioned, the 
general was required to maintain the Northwestern 
forts, with the provisions and military stores now 
accumulated in them ; to protect the frontier 
againsi the Indians ; and to keep the British at 
Maiden in check. Fortunately, before he had re- 
ceived these instructions, he had called for rein- 
forcements of militia both from Kentucky and 
Ohio ; and more fortunately yet, notwithstanding 
it was known that the call was disapproved of by 
the Secretary of War, the troops, nevertheless, 
were furnished. The whole number called for, 
however, was hardly sufficient to garrison the forts. 
As the period for which the remaining troops at 
fort Meigs had enlisted was now about expiring^ 
General Harrison felt great anxiety for the safety 
of that place, especially as he had heard from Gov- 
ernor Meigs that the Secretary of War had disap- 
proved his call for militia, though he had not abso- 
lutely countermanded it. To get together, if pos- 
sible, troops enough to garrison fort Meigs, Gene- 
ral Harrison hastened into the interior, and arrived 
at Cincinnati on the 22d of March. He left the 
command of fort Meigs to General Leftwich, the 
senior officer of the Virginia brigade,- having first 
ascertained that the breaches in the ice of Lake 
Erie would prevent an attack from fort Maiden 
during his absence. On the SQth, however, he re- 
ceived an express informing him that the ice of the 
lake was so far broken up that it would soon be- 
come navigable. Having long expected that the 
British would attack fort Meigs as soon as the 
navigation was open, he returned with all expedi- 
tion to the Rapids, collecting on the way all such 
detachments of troops as he could find, and leaving- 



96 



orders for the rest to follow as speedily as possible. 
He reached fort Meigs on the 10th of April, with 
a small body of troops, to the great joy of the gar- 
rison, which was now exceedingly reduced. Gen- 
eral Leftwich with his brigade were all gone, — the 
period of their enlistment having expired, — -and the 
fort was held by a few regulars, and a small body 
of Peansylvanians, who, notwithstanding the expi- 
ration of their term of enlistment, had volunteered 
to remain until the expected reinforcement should 
arrive. 

Every effort was now made to complete the de- 
fences of the fort; and the general looked with 
great anxiety for the arrival of the Kentucky mili- 
tia under General Clay, whose march, however, 
was greatly impeded by the terrible state of the 
Toads. In a short time, the scouts and advanced 
parties of the enemy began to make their appear- 
ance ; and on the 28th of April, the main body of 
the British troops was discovered, ascending the 
river in vessels and boats, the Indians approaching 
at the same time by land. 

The assailants immediately commenced the 
erection of batteries on the north side of the river, 
opposite the fort, while their main body was en- 
camped at old fort Miami, about a mile and a half 
below. To avoid the effect of these batteries, a 
traverse twelve feet high was constructed across 
the camp, the erection of which was concealed by 
the tents, and as soon as the batteries began to 
play, the troops were withdrawn behind the tra- 
verse, which afforded them a complete protection. 
The batteries, however, kept up a very heavy fire, 
which was sparingly returned from the fort, on ac- 
count of the scarcity of shot. The guns of the fort 
were twelve and eighteen pounders. Twelve pound 



97 

sliot were plentifully enough supplied from the 
guns of the enemy ; but they furnished no eight- 
eens, — all their large guns being twentyfours. 
Finding that little impression was to be made upon 
the fort from the north side of the river, the enemy 
established several batteries on the south side. But 
in the mean time, works had been erected to guard 
against this event, and the siege went on with no 
better success than before. 

On the night of the 4th of May a message was 
received bringing the information that General 
Clay, with his forces in boats, was just above the 
Rapids, and would arrive at the fort by three or 
four o'clock in the morning. General Harrison 
immediately resolved upon a vigorous effort to 
raise the seige by a simultaneous attack upon the 
enemy's works on both sides of the river. The 
attack of the batteries on the left was committed to 
to a part of General Clay's forces. An officer was 
despatched to him with orders to land six or eight 
hundred men on the left bank of the river, about a 
mile above the fort, who were to march with de- 
spatch and secrecy against the British batteries, 
carry them, spike the cannon, cut down the car- 
riages, and then hasten to their boats and cross 
over to the fort. Preparations in the mean time 
were made in the fort for a sortie against the bat- 
teries on the right bank. 

Clay detached colonel Dudley with eight hun- 
dred men for the attack upon the British batteries, 
and descending the river with the rest of his 
forces, though much annoyed by the Indians from 
the banks, he reached the fort in safety. Mean- 
while Dudley's corps landed, and rushing unex- 
pectedly upon the British batteries carried them 
without difficulty. This achievement was seen 

9 



98 



from the fort, and the entire success of this enter- 
prise seemed certain. The enmey in their camp 
a mile and a half below, were indeed seen to take 
the alarm, and to run to arms: but their distance 
was such that our troops might easily have em- 
barked and crossed to the fort without any impedi- 
ment. Presently, however, the general saw with 
feelings of indescribable anguish, — for he was 
watching the whole proceeding through his spy- 
glass, — that the British troops were in full march, 
while not the smallest appearance was discernable, 
on the part of our men, of any arrangements either 
to retreat or to fight. In fact they neither saw, 
heard, nor thought of the enemy ; their attention 
being entirely taken up with the novelty of their 
situation, or in skirmishing with a few Indians con- 
cealed in the bushes. An attempt was made by 
the general to call to them across the river, but 
that proved ineffectual. He then offered a thou- 
sand dollars to any one who would swim across 
and apprise Dudley of his danger. This was un- 
dertaken, but before it could be accomplished, the 
enemy had arrived. Forty or fifty of the Kentuck- 
ians were slain, and five hundred and fifty taken 
prisoners. About two hundred who were on the 
extreme left escaped to the boats, and succeeded in 
reaching the fort. Never was there a more strik- 
ing instance of an easy victory converted by igno- 
rance and thoughtlessness into a lamentable defeat! 

In the mean time, the batteries on the right 
bank were attacked by a detachment from the fort, 
and though defended by a strong body of troops, 
were all carried. Their batteries thus rendered 
useless, the enemy despaired of success, and a few 
days after raised the seige, and retired to Maiden. 

The season had now arrived for active opera- 



tions. But the enlistment of the regiments which 
were to constitute the Northwestern army was not 
yet completed. Leaving General Clay in com- 
mand of fort Meigs, General Harrison hastened 
into the interior to send forward the recruits and 
hasten the enlistments. The construction of the 
fleet at Presque Isle had not proceeded with the 
rapidity that had been anticipated. Early in July, 
however, the general received such information 
from commodore Perry, as satisfied him of the ne- 
cessity of concentrating his forces, and preparing 
for action. On the 25th of the same month he re- 
ceived from the war department the authority he 
had earnestly solicited and long expected, to call 
upon the governors of Kentucky and Ohio for a 
militia force ; and he immediately despatched one 
of his aids to the Governor of Kentucky for that 
purpose. 

In the mean time the forces of the enemy again 
made their appearance before camp Meigs. Gen- 
eral Harrison was at Lower Sandusky with a small 
body of regular troops. He immediately strength- 
ened the garrison of Fort Stephenson at that place, 
and having entrusted the command of it to Major 
Croghan, with the remainder of his troops he fell 
back to Seneca, nine miles above, — a position con- 
venient for assembling the forces marching from 
the interior, and whence succors might be sent to 
fort Meigs, while it covered the important point of 
Upper Sandusky, where the principal magazines 
of the army were accumulated. 

Word was sent to General Clay, that in case the 
enemy opened batteries against fort Meigs, every 
effort would be made to relieve it. But the British 
and Indians remained before that place only a few 
days. On the 28th the British troops were em- 



100 



^! 



barked and sailed round to Sandusky Bay, while 
the Indians marched through the swamps of Por- 
tage river, with the apparent intention of attacking 
Lower Sandusky. An examination of the heights 
around fort Stephenson had been made sometime 
previous by General Harrison, Major Croghan, 
and some other officers. It was found to be com- 
manded by a hill at no great distance, and the offi- : 
cers all agreed that it could not be defended against J 
heavy artillery. Orders were accordingly left with 
Major Croghan, that if British troops with cannon 
approached the place, and he discovered them in , 
time, he should abandon the fort and effect a re- 
treat ; but against a force merely of Indians, he 
was to maintain his position, as the fort was im- 
pregnable to them, and an attempt to retreat in ■ 
their presence would be ineffectual. j 

On the evening of the 29th the general received i 
information that the siege of fort Meigs had been : 
raised ; and from the number of Indians that in- 
fested the woods in the vicinity of his camp, he 
had no doubt that an immediate attack was intend- 
ed by the combined British and Indians, either 
upon his own position at Seneca, or on fort Ste- 
phenson. A council of war was assembled, which 
gave a unanimous opinion, that as fort Stephenson 
was untenable against heavy artillery, — any quan- 
tity of which, by means of water transportation, 
the enemy might bring against it, — and as it was 
an unimportant post, it had better be abandoned, 
and the garrison withdrawn. Additional reasons 
lor this advice were to be found in the fact of the 
very small force under the general's immediate 
command ; and in the necessity of concentrating 
all the troops within his reach, for the protection of 
Upper Sandusky, which was a point of the utmost 



101 

importance. Orders were accordingly despatched 
to Major Crogan to set fire to the fort, and to re- 
j)air with his command to head-quarters. But 
these orders did not arrive till the fort was already 
surrounded by Indians ; and after consulting with 
his officers, who deemed a retreat unsafe, and that 
the post might be maintained, at least till further 
instructions could be received from head-quarters, 
Major Croghan returned the following answer : — 
" Sir, I have just received yours of yesterday, 10 
o'clock, P. M., ordering me to destroy this place 
and make good my retreat, which was received too 
late to be carried into execution. We have deter- 
mined to maintain this place, and by heavens we 
can." As Major Croghan expected that this note 
would fall into the hands of the enemy, he ex- 
pressed himself in much stronger language than 
would otherwise have been consistent with propri- 
ety. However, it reached the general the same 
day. Not understanding the circumstances and 
motives which had produced it, and looking upon 
the style of the letter as a breach of military eti- 
quette, he immediately despatched Colonel Willis, 
escorted by a corps of dragoons, with a letter to 
Major Croghan, requiring him to give up the com- 
mand of the fort to Colonel Willis, and to repair to 
head-quarters. He did so ; and having explained 
his motives in writing the offensive note, the ex- 
planations were deemed satisfactory, and the next 
morning he was permitted to return to his com- 
mand, with written orders similar to those which 
had originally been given him. 

On the 1st of August, the British and Indians 
appeared before the fort, and demanded its surren- 
der. This being refused, a cannonade was opened 
from the enemy's gun-boats, but as their guns were 
9* 



102 



only sis pounders, they did but little damage. On the 
evening of the 2d, they attempted an assault ; but 
being received by a galling fire of musketry, and 
their column being raked by a six pounder, the 
only piece of artilery in the fort, they were repulsed 
with great loss, and that same night they made a 
hasty and disorderly retreat. 

The gallant defence of fort Stephenson gained 
Croghan a high reputation ; and some of the ene- 
mies of General Harrison made it the occasion of 
severe attacks npon him. In these attacks, how- 
ever, Croghan himself refused to join. In a letter 
on this subject published soon after, he says, — *' It 
would be insincere to say that I am not flattered by 
the many handsome things which have been said 
about the defence which was made by the troops 
under my command ; but I desire no plaudits 
which are bestowed upon me at the expense of. 
General Harrison. 

" I have at all times enjoyed his confidence as 
far as ray rank in the army entitled me to it ; and 
on proper occasions received his marked attentions. 
I have felt the warmest attachment for him as a 
man, and my confidence in him as an able com- 
mander remains unshaken. I feel every assurance 
that he will at all times do me ample justice ; and 
nothing could give me more pain than to see his 
enemies seize upon this occasion to deal out their 
unfriendly feeling and accrimonious dislike; and 
as long as he continues, (as in my humble opinion 
he has hitherto done,) to make the wisest arrange- 
ments and the most judicious disposition, which 
the forces under his command will justify, I shall 
not hesitate to unite with the army in bestowing 
upon him that confidence which he so richly mer- 
its, and which has on no occasion been withheld." 



, 103 

It is proper to add, — as this subject has been 
much harped upon by General Harrison's enemies, 
that in consequence of certain publications in the 
newspapers, all the general and field officers of the 
army united in signing a paper, by which the ge- 
neral's conduct in this affair was cordially approved. 

About the 18th of August, commodore Perry 
with his fleet, arrived off Sandusky Bay. General 
Harrison immediately went on board to consult as 
to future operations. It was agreed that the com- 
modore should go immediately in pursuit of the 
enemy before incumbering his ships with the land 
forces ; but as the fleet was still deficient in men, 
the general agreed to furnish one hundred and 
fifty, to be selected from the w^hole army. This 
being done, Perry sailed immediately for Maiden, 
where the British fleet was at anchor. He lay for 
some days before that place ; but finding that the 
enemy showed no disposition to come out, he 
returned to the anchorage at Put-in Bay, at that 
time the only harbor on our side of the lake. After 
waiting there for some time, he was gratified on 
the 10th of September by the appearance of the 
enemy ; and the same day was fought that cele- 
brated action, by which Perry gained so much 
honor, and which resulted in the capture of the 
enemy's whole fleet. 

In the meantime General Harrison had drawn 
together all the regular troops belonging to his 
army — so many of them at least as had been en- 
listed,— and a day or two after Perry's victory, he 
was joined by a strong corps of militia from Ken- 
tucky, commanded by Governor Shelby in person. 
The troops at fort Meigs joined the main army at 
the mouth of Portage river, except the mounted 
regiment under Colonel Johnson, which had orders 



104 



to advance by way of the river Raisin. On tbe 
20th of September the general embarked with two 
brigades for Bass Island ; and on the two suc- 
ceeding days the rest of the troops arrived there. 
On the 25th the whole array passed over to the 
Middle Sister. These islands were found very 
convenient in the passage of the lake, as the men 
were thus enabled to avoid sea-sickness, and to se- 
cure their baggage against any ordinary storm. 
On the 26th, General Harrison sailed with Com- 
modore Perry in the Ariel, to reconnoitre Maiden, 
and select a point of debarkation. On his return 
he issued a general order prescribing the course to 
be pursued by the troops in landing and forming in 
order of battle, a paper drawn up with that clear 
and accurate minuteness, so necessary with troops, 
most of whose officers were v/holly without experi- 
ence, and entirely unacquainted with such ma- 
noeuvres. 

On the 27th, the army was embarked and sailed 
for the Canada shore. Just previous to landing, 
the general circulated among the troops a short but 
spirited address, which concluded as follows : — 
" Kentuckians ! remember the river Raisin, but 
remember it only whilst the victory is suspended. 
The revenge of a soldier cannot be gratified upon 
a fallen enemy." The army landed in high spirits 
and good order, and contrary to expectation, with- 
out resistance. General Proctor, the British com- 
mander, had burned the fort, navy-yard, barracks, 
and public store-houses, and had retreated to Sand- 
wich. The army encamped that night on the 
ruins of Maiden, and the next day entered Sand- 
wich, which by this time had also been evacuated 
by Proctor. General McArthur's brigade crossed 
over and took possession of Detroit; and the same 



105 



evening General Harrison issued a proclamation 
re-establishing the civil government of the territory 
of Michigan. On the 1st of October, Colonel 
Johnson with his mounted regiment joined the 
army at Sandwich, and the pursuit of Proctor was 
immediately commenced. He had retreated up 
the river Thames, and after a severe pursuit, was 
overtaken on the 5th, near the Moravian towns. 
He was strongly posted in an open wood, with his 
left resting on the river, and supported by artillery, 
and his right extending to a swamp which stretch- 
ed along for a great distance, parallel to the river. 
This swamp was occupied by a strong body of In- 
dians under the celebrated Tecumthe. 

General Harrison drew up his infantry, one di- 
vision, extending in a double line from the river to 
the swamp, opposite Proctor's troops ; and the 
other division at right angles to the first, with its 
front extending along the swamp, with the view of 
preventing the Indians from turning his flank and 
getting into the rear. 

Johnson's mounted regiment which led in the 
pursuit, was still in front of the infantry, and the 
general was somewhat at a loss how to dispose of 
it to advantage. But learning that the British re- 
gulars, in order to occupy all the ground between 
the river and the swamp, had been formed in open 
files, he resolved to try what effect upon them a 
charge by the mounted men would have. The 
regiment was accordingly drawn up in close column, 
and charging through the enemy's ranks, threw 
them into confusion, formed in their rear, and so 
far as the regulars were concerned, ended the bat- 
tle almost in a moment. The British officers 
seeing no hopes of rallying their men, surrendered 
at once. Proctor with a few attendants, escaped 
by the fleetness of their horses. 



106 

The contest with the Indians on the left, was 
more severe. They advanced and poured in a 
galling fire not only upon the left of the mounted 
men, but also upon the infantry, and for a moment 
made some impression upon the left flank. Addi- 
tional troops, however, were brought up, and being 
received with a severe fire in front, while a part of 
Johnson's regiment in the mean time had gained 
their rear, the Indians retreated with much precipi^ 
tation, and severe loss. 

In this battle fell Tecumthe, the celebrated Indian 
chief, who, ever since the commencement of the 
war, had been zealously employed on behalf of the 
British. The British government, sensible of the 
services he had rendered, granted a pension to his 
widow and children, who after the war resided for 
some time in the vicinity of Maiden. The prophet 
lived also at the same place, supported in like man- 
ner by a British pension. After his brother's 
death, his communications with the Great Spirit 
came to an end ; and he no longer possessed any 
influence or consequence among the Indians. 

All the stores and artillery of the British army, 
as well as a great quantity of small arms, fell into 
the hands of the victorious troops. Among the ar- 
tillery were three brass pieces, trophies of the 
revolutionary war, taken at Saratoga and York- 
town, which had been surrendered by General 
Hull. 

It v/as always a rule with General Harrison on 
all occasions, to favor himself in nothing, but to 
share equally with the common soldiers the fa- 
tigues and hardships of the service. Upon the 
expedition up the Thames in pursuit of General 
Proctor, all his baggage was contained in a valise, 
while his bedding consisted of a single blanket 



107 



fastened over his saddle, and even this he gave to 
Colonel Evans, a British officer, who was wounded 
and taken prisoner. On the night after the hattle 
he had thirty-five British officers, prisoners of war, 
to sup with him. All the fare he was able to ffive 
them, was fresh beef roasted before the fire, with- 
out either bread or salt. This had been the sub- 
sistence of the army during the pursuit, and the 
rations of the general were exactly those of the 
soldiers. Indeed he made it a point on every oc- 
casion, to set an example of fortitude and patience 
to his men, and to share with them every hard- 
ship, difficulty and danger. Whether marching or 
in- camp, the whole army was regularly under 
arms at day-break ; and however severe the wea- 
ther, the general never failed to be out himself, 
and indeed was generally the first officer on horse- 
back in the whole army. 

The troops, on their return, arriving at Sand- 
wich on the 10th, were transported across the 
strait to Detroit, where the Kentucky volunteers 
were dismissed. The Indian tribes, now that 
their British allies could support them no longer, 
sent in to the general to ask for peace. An armis- 
tice was granted them, and the subject of a final 
arrangement was referred to the government at 
Washington. 

As the Northwestern frontier had now assumed 
a peaceful aspect, and as it was too late in the sea- 
son to send an expedition against the posts on the 
upper lakes, which were still held by the British, 
General Harrison determined to take a part of 
the troops to the Niagara frontier, to assist in the 
operations going on in that quarter. General Cass 
was left, with his brigade, to protect the territory 
of Michigan, and that part of Upper Canada which 



108 



had submitted to the American arms. The rest of 
the troops, to the number of fifteen hundred men, 
were embarked on board the fleet, and arrived at 
Buffalo on the 24th of October. Thence General 
Harrison marched to Newark, a village on the Ca- 
nadian side, near the outlet of the Niagara river, at 
that time held by the Americans. He was prepa- 
ring for an attack on the British forces at Burling- 
ton Heights, when he received orders from the war 
department to send his troops to Sackett's harbor 
for the defence of that place. He accompanied the 
troops thither, and then proceeded to Washington 
by the way of New York, Philadelphia and Balti- 
more. In all those cities he was received with the 
highest honors, and most distinguished respect. 
He remained in Washington but a few days, when 
he departed for Ohio, at the urgent request of the 
president, who considered his presence there of 
importance, both as regarded the peace of the fron- 
tier, and towards the filling up of the regiments 
intended to be raised in the Western States. 

General John Armstrong was at that time the 
Secretary of War, — a person principally known for 
his attempts to stir up a mutiny in the revolution- 
ary army, when it was about to be disbanded after 
the peace of 1783. He seems from the beginning 
to have conceived some prejudice against General 
Harrison, and the plan of the campaign, for 1814, 
as submitted by him to the president, authorized 
the inference that Harrison would not be employed 
in any active service, but would be restricted to the 
command of the eighth military district, inclndiMg 
Ohio, Indiana, and other Western States. The 
Secretary also interfered during the winter, more 
than once, with the internal arrangements of the 
district which Harrison commanded, in a manner 



109 

contrary to all military etiquette. Under these 
circumstances, General Harrison determined to 
resign his commission. It would indeed have been 
very convenient for him to have enjoyed the rank 
and emoluments of a major general, residing too at 
Cincinnati, where his family were ; but under the 
circumstances, he felt that it would be a degrada- 
tion to continue to hold his commission. He had 
no inclination for a nominal command, or to re- 
ceive pay for services which he did not perform. 
Accordingly he addressed a letter of resignation to 
the Secretary, and a notification of it to the Presi- 
dent. As soon as Governor Shelby heard of this 
afTair, he sent a letter of remonstrance to the presi- 
dent against the acceptance of Harrison's resigna- 
tion. But the president was away on a visit to 
Virginia, and in his absence, and without consult- 
ing with him, the secretary saw fit to accept the 
resignation. The president expressed his great 
regret that the letter of Governor Shelby had not 
been received earlier, as in that case the valuable 
services of General Harrison might have been pre- 
served to the country for the ensuing campaign. 



CHAPTER VII 



Harrison appointed a commissioner to treat with the Indians— Is 
elected to Congress — He demands an investigation of his con- 
■ duct as commander of the Northwestern army — His militia bill 
— Pensions — General Jackson and the Seminole War — He is 
elected to the Senate of Ohio— Is chosen a Senator of the Uni- 
ted States — Is appointed Minister to Colombia. 

Though General Harrison had retired from the 
army, he still continued to be employed in the ser- 
vice of his country. In the summer of 1814, in 
conjunction with Governor Shelby and General 
10 



no 



Cass, he was appointed to treat with the Indian 
tribes on the Northwestern frontier, who had been 
engaged in hostilities against the United States. 
The commissioners succeeded in concluding a 
treaty at Greenville, by which most of these tribes, 
— whom it was found impossible to keep neutral 
while a war was going on in their neighborhood, — 
agreed to take up arms in favor of the United States. 

In 1815, after the peace with Great Britain, it 
became necessary in conformity with one of the 
articles of the treaty of Ghent, to offer to the sev- 
eral tribes who had taken part with the enemy, the 
restoration of the territories from which they had 
been expelled in consequence of the successful op- 
erations of General Harrison's army. General 
Harrison was placed at the head of the commission 
appointed for that purpose, and a treaty with the 
tribes interested, was made the same year at Detroit. 

In 1816, General Harrison was elected from 
Ohio a member of the House of Eepresentatives of 
the United States, to fill a vacancy, and also for 
the succeeding two years. 

It has been observed, — and the truth of the ob- 
servation is amply verified in the present case, — 
that in proportion to the merits and services of a 
public man, are the envy, malice and hatred with 
which, on the part of certain persons, he is always 
pursued. In the command of the Northwestern 
army, General Harrison was obliged to make 
many enemies. It was impossible for him to re- 
tain the good will of those government contractors 
whose outrageous frauds he detected and exposed ; 
and he naturally fell under the displeasure of cer- 
tain officers of the militia, whose total ignorance 
and incompetency frequently subjected them to the 
notice of the commander-in-chief. Add to this the 



Ill 



effect of that disposition, always so prevalent, to as- 
sume the part of a critic and a censor, and to detract 
even from the just merits of those whose reputation 
overshadows us ; and allow further for the bitter 
party spirit which prevailed at that time, and 
which led those who were opposed to the war to 
circulate, if not to invent, the most unfounded cal- 
umnies against all those who were engaged in its 
prosecution ; — take all these things into considera- 
tion and it will not be thought remarkable that, 
with all the popularity which General Harrison so 
justly enjoyed, there was a counter current of zeal- 
ous and bitter dislike. 

Some time previous to his election to Congress 
one of the army contractors, whose unjust gains 
had been diminished by General Harrison's vigi- 
lance, undertook to insinuate that his conduct had 
been partial and unjust, if not corrupt, with respect 
to the commissariat of the army. He had no soon- 
er taken his seat in the House, than he resolved 
that this charge thus specifically made, should be 
forthwith investigated ; and for that purpose, he 
asked for a committee. A committee of seven 
was accordingly appointed, of which Richard M. 
Johnson, (now Vice President of the United 
Sttates,) was chairman. Afier a thorough inquiry 
into the whole subject, and the examination of 
many witnesses, the committee made a unanimous 
report, in which they exculpated General Harrison 
in the fullest manner from all the charges brought 
against him, and paid a high compliment to his 
patriotism, disinterestedness, and devotion to the 
public service. 

This calumny, and some others circulated at the 
same time, had produced a serious injury to Gen- 
eral Harrison. They had caused the postpone- 



112 



ment of a resolution introduced into the United 
States Senate, for giving him the gold medal, and 
the thanks of Congress. As these calumnies were 
now silenced, the resolution was again called up. 
It passed the Senate unanimously, and was con- 
curred in by the House, with but a single dissent- 
ing vote. 

There were two great political objects which 
General Harrison had much at heart, and which 
he hoped his seat in the House might aid him in 
accomplishing. One was, a reform of the militia 
system ; and the other, the relief of the veteran 
soldiers who had served in the revolutionary ar- 
mies, as well as of those who had been wounded 
or otherwise disabled in the late war. 

With respect to the existing militia system, no 
one had lately had greater experience than General 
Harrison of its total inefficiency. He was appoint- 
ed chairman of a committee to take the subject into 
consideration, and subsequently brought in a bill, 
accompanied with an explanatory report, in which 
he maintained the following points : — 1st, that a 
government constituted like ours should rely upon 
its militia for its defence, rather than on a standing 
army ; 2d, that the militia, to be available, must 
be disciplined ; and 3dly, that discipline can only 
be attained by a regular system of military instruc- 
tion. The bill, the provisions of which were 
founded upon these general principles, was sub- 
mitted to the executive, and was highly approved 
by all the heads of departments. It was supported 
by General Harrison in an eloquent speech. But 
Congress has always displayed a great aversion 
for any legislation on the subject of the militia. 
At this time, just escaped frcm a war, and weary 
of military details of whici ew of the members 



113 



had any personal knowledge, the subject was par- 
ticularly unpalatable ; and General Harrison's 
bill, after being postponed from session to session, 
was finally dropped for want of some one to sustain 
it, after he had left Congress. 

In his other object he was more successful. His 
efforts joined with those of several other members, 
succeeded in procuring the passage of a law, by 
which the first step was taken toward rescuing the 
aged heroes of the revolution from the poverty and 
distress under which they had so long suffered. 
By his exertions also, the pensions of many inva- 
lids who had been severely wounded in the last 
war, were increased ; and he introduced, sustained 
by an eloquent speech, and carried through the 
House, under very unfavorable circumstances, and 
in spite of a vigorous opposition, a bill for extend- 
ing the pensions of the widows and orphans of 
those who had been killed in the service. 

The question of acknowledging the indepen- 
dence of the South American Republics coming up 
while he was a member of the House, he warmly 
supported that measure. There also occurred dur- 
ing his membership that celebrated debate on the 
Seminole war, upon which subject he delivered an 
eloquent speech. He supported the resolutions of 
censure upon General Jackson's conduct in invad- 
ing Florida, on the ground that a republican gov- 
ernment should make no distinction between men ; 
and should allow no man to say that he could do 
that with impunity which another could not. •* No 
one," he added, in a spirit somewhat prophetic, 
" no one can tell how soon the example of such 
a censure may be beneficial." But while he sus- 
tained the resolutions of censure, he refused to join 
in the indiscriminate abuse which was levelled at 
10* 



114 



their object. He defended such of Jackson's acts 
as he thought right, and gave him credit for pat- 
riotic motives. The speech was moderate, manly 
and candid ; but General Jackson never forgot, nor 
forgave it. 

In 1S19, General Harrison was elected a member 
of the State Senate of Ohio, an office which he held 
for two years. In 1S24, he was elected to the 
Senate of the United States ; and was ap- 
pointed chairman of the military committe in place 
of General Jackson, who had resigned his seat. 

As chairman of that committee he introduced a 
bill for preventing desertion from the army, which 
object he proposed to effect, not by an increase of 
punishment, but by elevating the moral character 
of the troops, — by raising the rank and increasing 
the pay of the non-commissioned officer, thus giv- 
ing him consequence and respectability in his own 
eyes; and by holding out to the soldier additional 
inducements and motives for a faithful performance 
of his duty. This bill he supported in a well con- 
sidered and animated speech. He also gave much 
time and attention to the consolidarion of the pen- 
sion acts, and the passage of a uniform law to em- 
brace the cases of all who should be deserving of 
that sort of justice from their country. 

In 1828, General Harrison was appointed min- 
ister plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia. 
He proceeded immediately upon his mission ; 
landed at Maracaybo on the 22d December, and 
from that place repaired to Bogota, the capital of 
Colombia. He was received there with the most 
flattering demonstrations of respect ; but his repub- 
lican ideas, and the plain simplicity of his dress 
and manners, contrasted somewhat too strongly 
with the arbitrary opiniuns and the ostentatious 



115 



display which prevailed at the court of Bolivar, to 
be altogether agreeable to those who at that time 
had engrossed the powers of the Colombian gov- 
ernment. Thoy suspected him of favoring the op- 
posite party in the state, and commenced a series 
of petty persecutions which rendered his situation 
extremely irksome, but against which he sustained 
himself with his usual gallantry and prudence. 
He was soon relieved, however from all embarrass- 
ments on this score ; for one of the first acts of 
Jackson's administration was the recall of General 
Harrison from Columbia. His speech on the Sem- 
inole war had not been forgotten. 

Before leaving the country, however, he address- 
ed a letter to Bolivar, which has been much and 
deservedly celebrated. The Republic of Colombia 
was formed by the union of Venezuela, New Gre- 
nada, and a part of the old vice-royalty of Peru, 
(now called Equador,) provinces which have since 
separated and formed independent governments. 
There were two great parties in the state, one 
composed principally of the military and the 
priests, who were in favor of a strong and splendid 
government, with a plentiful infusion of aristocrati- 
cal principles. The other party, which has ,ulti- 
mately prevailed in all the states of which Colom- 
bia was composed, was much more democratic in 
its ideas, and made the institutions of the United 
States their model. Bolivar, the president of Co- 
lombia, was strongly inclined to think and act with 
the first described of these two parties, and was 
much flattered by those who composed it. In con- 
sequence of some disturbances in Venezuela, he 
had been clothed with extraordinary powers, which 
he still continued to exercise, notwithstanding the 
disturbances were entirely suppressed ; and a pro- 



116 

ject was set on foot to put the constitution aside 
altogether, and raise Bolivar to a dictatorship. 
This project originated with the members of the 
aristocratical party, who flattered themselves that 
as the officers, agents, and servants of a despotic 
executive, they might exercise much more power, 
and enjoy many more privileges, than they ever 
could hope for under a free constitution. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Employments of General Harrison since his recall from Colombia 
— His person and character — He is nominated for the Presi- 
dency — His letter to Harnaar Denny. 

Since General Harrison's return from Colombia 
he has taken no active part in public life or politi- 
cal affairs, but has lived retired upon his form at 
North Bend, on the Ohio, some miles below Cincin- 
nati. Having never been rich, he was'induced, as 
a means of providing for those dependent upon 
him, and supporting that plain but ample hospi- 
tality in which he has ever indulged, to accept the 
office of clerk of the courts for the county in which 
he resides, which office he still continues to hold. 
Those who acquire splendid fortunes by specula- 
tions on the public treasury, and those who regard 
as a mark of greatness, an indolent dependence on 
the contributions of private or political friends, may 
ridicule the man who secures for himself comfort 
^nd independence by the acceptance of a county 
clerkship ; but no true republican, certainly, will 
ever think it a matter of reproach, that after pass- 
ing so many years in the public service, and 



117 

enjoying so many opportunities to enrich himself, 
General Harrison should still remain poor ; and 
still less will it be regarded as derogatory to his 
character, that he chooses to supply the deficien- 
cies of his fortune by the honest exertion of his 
talents and industry in a useful and respectable 
employment. 

But although General Harrison has never suf- 
fered a feeling of false pride to influence his con- 
duct, he has ever exhibited whether in public or 
private life, the utmost delicacy of honor in all his 
pecuniary transactions. 

Some years ago, it was ascertained that a large 
tract of land, near Cincinnati, which had been sold 
long before for a mere trifle, under an execution 
against the original proprietor, could not be held 
under that sale on account of some informality in 
the proceedings. The legal title was in General 
Harrison, and another gentleman who were the* 
heirs at law. The value of this land had risen 
greatly, and was sufficient to form princely estates 
for these heirs, had they chosen to insist upon their 
legal rights. But under the circumstances, and as 
against the present holders. General Harrison did 
not think it just to insist upon his legal claim, and 
he induced his coheir to join with him in executing 
deeds of quit-claim to the land, without demanding 
any other consideration except a few hundred dol- 
lars, being the difference between the price for 
which the land sold under the execution, and its 
actual value at the time of that sale. There were, 
however, included in the tract, twelve acres, which 
were General Harrison's private property, by do- 
nation from his father-in-law, and which were 
improperly included in the sale made by the sheriff 
under the execution. This land he might have 



118 



reclaimed both legally and equitably; but such 
was his nice feeling of honor, and scrupulous re- 
gard for the rights of others, that he suffered this 
to go with the rest, receiving only the difference 
between ths amount for which this land sold and 
its actual value at the time of the sale. These 
twelve acres thus relinquished are said to be now 
worth one hundred thousand dollars. 

For his services as commander of the expedition 
to Tippecanoe, General Harrison never asked nor 
received any compensation; and the expenses 
which he was obliged to incur, as commander of 
the Northwestern army, so far exceeded his pay, 
that he found it necessary to sell a fine tract of 
land in order to meet them. Thus, during those 
campaigns, he not only risked his life, and gave 
the labor of his days and nights to the public ser- 
vice, but he contributed also a considerable portion 
of the small estate to sustain his country in that 
hour of peril. 

In person, General Harrison is tall and slender. 
Although he never had the appearance of posses- 
sing a robust constitution, yet such have been the 
effects of habitual activity and temperance, that 
few men at his age enjoy so much bodily vigor. 
He has a fine dark eye, remarkable for its keen- 
ness, fire, and intelligence, and his face is strongly 
expressive of the vivacity of his mind, and the be- 
nevolence of his character. 

The most remarkable traits of General Harrison, 
and those by which he has been distinguished 
throughout his whole career, are his disinterested- 
ness, his regard for the comforts and the rights of 
others, his generous disposition, his mild and for- 
bearing temper, his plain, easy and unostentatious 
manners. Though warm in his attachments, he 



119 



lias never been violent or vindictive in his enmi- 
ties. In a long life spent on the utmost frontier, 
and in constant collision with men, fierce, turbulent, 
and ungovernable, his moderation, and the reason- 
ableness and justice of his conduct, have prevented 
him from being involved in any way in duels, or 
personal rencontres so common in those regions. 
He has always been able to guard his rights and 
sustain his position, without having recourse to 
pistols or dirks. In the exercise of that almost 
unlimited authority which was at times conferred 
upon him, he displayed his moderation by con- 
forming himself to a rigid observance of existing 
statutes and the rights of the citizens ; nor did he 
ever find it necessary, in the course of his military 
career, to set at defiance either the law of nations, 
or the civil laws of the state. 

General Harrison never has been much con- 
nected with political parties. He never has become 
the favorite leader of a faction, upon whom the 
most elaborate flatteries are exhausted by a body 
of devoted partizans. His services have not been 
services to a party but services to the country. He 
stands free and untrammelled, ready, and able 
to serve his country again. Where can be found 
a man whose patriotism has been so thoroughly 
tried and proved — whose integrity, moderation and 
attachment to the interests of the people, are so 
unquestionable, or who is so well able to concen- 
trate about him the great mass of honest and intel- 
ligent citizens, and with th,eir aid and support, to 
rescue the constitution, so much endangered of 
late by party violence, and executive usurpation 1 

As General Harrison obtained the civil and mi- 
litary promotion which he has at times enjoyed, 
not by any party arrangements or system of under- 



120 



hand maticeuvres, but through the spontaneous 
confidence and voluntary choice of his fellow citi- 
zens, so the circumstances under which he has 
become a candidate for the presidency are of the 
same character. The partisans and politicians have 
all been against him. It is nothing but the confi* 
dence and love of the people which caused him to 
be selected as a candidate. The principles upon 
which he would be likely to administ'^r the govern- 
ment, should he ever enjoy the opportunity, may be 
judged of from the following letter of his to Harmar 
Denny in reply to a letter of that gentleman, in- 
forming him of the doings of the antirnasonic con- 
vention assembled at Philadelphia : — 

" North Bend, 2d Dec, 1838. 

"Dear Sir: — As it is probable that you have by 
this time returned to Pittsburg, I do myself the honor 
to acknowledge the receipt of your letter from Phila- 
delphia, containing the proceedings of the national 
democratic antirnasonic convention, which lately 
convened in that city. With feelings of the 
deepest gratitude, I read the resolution unanimously 
adopted, nominating me as a candidate for the 
President of the United State. This is the sec- 
ond time that I have received from that patriotic 
party, of which you yourself are a distinguished mem- 
ber, the highest evidence of confidence that can be 
given to a citizen of our Republic. I would attempt 
to describe my sense of the obligations I owe them, if 
I were not convinced that any language which 1 could 
command wuuld fall short of what I really feel. If, 
however, the wishes of the convention should be re- 
alized, and if I should second their efforts, I shall have 
it in my power to manifest my gratitude in a manner 
more acceptable to those whom you represent, than 
by any professions of it which I could at this time 
make ; I mean by exerting my utmost efforts to carry 
out the principles set forth in their resolutions, by ar- 



121 



resthrg the progress of the measures '^destructive to* 
the prosperity of the peoplcy and tending to the sub- 
version of their liberties," and substituting for them 
those sound democratic republican doctrines, upon 
which the adininistratiou of Jefferson and Madison- 
were conducted. 

"Atnong the principles proper to be adopted by 
any Executive sincerely desirous to restore the admin- 
istration to its origiiial simplicity and purity, I deem 
the following to be of jjromincnt importance. 

" I. To confine his service to a single tenii, 

" IL To disclaim all right of control over the pub- 
lic treasure, with the exception of such part of it as 
may be appropriated by law, to carry on the public 
services, and that to be applied precisely as the law 
may direct, and drawn from tiie treasury agreeably to 
the long established forms of that department. 

" III. Th.it he should never attempt to influence th&- 
eleotionSj either by the people orthe state legislatures, 
or suffer the federal officers under his control to take 
any other part in tFjem than by giving their own vote 
then they ])0S5ess the right of voting.] 

" IV, That in the exercise of the veto power, he 
should limit his rejection of bills to: 1st. Such as are 
in his opinion unconstitutional. 2d. Such as tend to 
ei:!croach on the rights of the states or individuals^ 
Sd, Such as involving deep interests., may in his opin- 
ion require more mature deliberation or reference to 
the will of the people, to be ascertained at the suc- 
ceedino- elections. 

"V. That he should never suffer the influence of 
his office to l>€ used for purposes of a purely party 
character. 

"VI. That m removals from office of those who 
hwld their appointments during the pleasure of the 
E-xecutive, the cause of such removal should always 
be communicated to the person removed, and if re- 
quested to the SenatCy at the time the nomination of a 
successor is made, 

'* And last, but not least in importance, 

" VIL That he should not suffer the Executive de- 
li 



122 



|5artiKent of the government lo become the source of 
legislation ; but leave the whole business of making 
laws for rlie Union to the department to which the 
Constitution has exclusively assigned it, until they 
have assumed that perfected shape, where and when 
alone the opinions of the Executive may be heard. A 
community of power in the preparation of the laws 
between the legislative and executive departments, 
must necessarily lead to dangerous conjbinations, 
greatly to the advantage of a president desirous of ex- 
tending his power. Such a construction of the con- 
stitution could never have been contemplated by those 
who tVamed it. They well knew that those who pro- 
pose the bills, will always take care of themselves, or 
the interests of their constituents, and hence the pro- 
vision in the Constitution, borrowed fron} that of Ling- 
land, restricting the originating of revenue bills to the 
immediate representatives af the people. So far from 
agreeing in oj>inion with the distinguished character 
who lately retired from the presidency, tiiat congress 
should have applied to him lor a project of a banking 
jsystem, 1 think that such an application would have 
manifested not only great subserviency u])on the part 
of that body, but an unpardonable ignorance of tho 
chief danger to be apprehended trom such an institu- 
tion. That danger unquestionably consists in a union 
of interests between the executive and the bank. 
Would an ambitious incumbent otthe executive chair 
iieglect so favorable an opportunity as the preparing 
of the law would give him, to insert in it provisions 
•to secure his intiuence overit? In the autiiority given 
to the president by the Constitution " to recommend 
to congress such measures as ho shall judge necessary 
and expedient," it wus certainly never intended that 
the measures he reconsmended should be presented in 
-a shape suited for the injmediaie decision of the legis- 
lature. The sages who nmde the Constitution, too 
well knew the advantages which the crown of Eng- 
land derives from the exercise of thjs power by its 
ministers, to have intended it to be used by our chief 
tnagistrale, or the heads of departments under his 



us 

control. The boasted principles of the English Con-^ 
stitution, that the consent of the democratic branch is 
not tMily necessary to draw money from the people, 
but that it is its inviohibhj prerogative also to origi- 
nate all the bills for that purpose, is trae in the-* 
oryy btit rendered utterly false and nugatory in 
effect, by the participation of the ministers of the 
crown in the details of lei^islatjon. Indeed the in- 
fliience thev derive from sittin*^ as nrrembers of the 
House of Commons, atid from wielding the immense 
patronage of the crown (constitutional or usurped,) 
giv^es them a power over that body, that renders 
plausible, at least, the flattery, or ;is it is more |)roba- 
ble, the intended sarcasm of Sir Walter Raleigh, in 
an address to James J., that the demand of the sover- 
eign upon the Connnons for |)ecuniary aid, wr$ re- 
quired only ' that the tax might seem to come from 
themselves.' 

" Having thus given you my opinion of somethings 
"which miijbt be done, and others which should not be 
done, by a President coming into power by the support 
of those of the people who are opposed to the prin- 
ciples upon which the present administration is con- 
ducted, you will see that I have omitted one, which 
is deemed by many of as much importance as any 
other, I allude to the appointment of members of 
Congress to office by the President, The Constitu- 
tion contains no prohibition of such appointments, no 
doubt because; its authors could not believe in its ne- 
cessity, from the purity of character which was mani- 
fested by those who possessed the confidence of the 
people at that [)eriod. It is, however, an opinion very 
generally entertained by the opposition party, that the 
country would have escaped much of the evil under 
which >t has suffered for some years past, if the Con- 
stitution had contained a provision of that kind. 
Having had no opportunity of personal observation 
on the conduct of the administration for the last ten 
years, I am unable to decide upon the truth or error 
of this opinion. 13ut I should be very willing that the^ 
Iknown subserviency of the Legislature to the Execu- 



124 



^ive, in several memorable instanoes, should be ac- 
counted for in a way somewhat less injurious to the 
character of the country, and of republicanism itself, 
than by the admission that the fathers of the land, the 
trusted servants of a virtuous people, could be sedu- 
ced from the path of duty and honor, by the paltry 
trappings and emoluments of dependent offices. But 
if the evil really exists, and if there be good reasou to 
believe that its source is to be found in the corrupti- 
bility of members of the Legislature, an effectual 
remedy cannot be too soon applied. And it happens 
in this instance that there is a choice of remedies. 
One of those, however, is in my opinion free from the 
objections which might be offered to the other. The 
one to which I object is, that which the late President 
htis been so loudly called upon to adopt, in conse- 
quence of a promise made at the commencement of 
his administration, viz. that the Executive under no 
circumstances should appoint to office a member of 
cither branch of the National Legislature. There 
are, in my mind, several weighty reasons against the 
adoption of this principle, i will detain you with the 
mention of but two of them, because f believe that 
you will agree with me, that the alternative 1 shall 
present, while it would be equally effectual, contains 
no feature to which a reasonable objection could be 
made. 

" As the Constitution contains no provision to pre- 
vent the ap[)ointment of members of Congress to 
otlice by the Executive, could the Executive with a 
•due regard to delicacy and justice, without usurping 
power from th« people, declare a disqualification 
which they had not thought necessary ? And whfTd 
is the American citizen who regards the honor of his 
country, the character of its people, or who believe* 
in the superiority of a republican form of government, 
who would be willing to proclaim to the world, that 
the youthful nation which has attracted so much of 
its attention, which it has so much admired for its 
gigantic strength, its undaunted courage, its high at- 
tain menls in literature and the arts, and the extenial 



125 

beauty of its institutions, was, within, a mass of mean-' 
ness and corruption? That even the chosen servants 
of the people, were ever ready for a paltry consider- 
ation, to abandon their allegiance to their lawful sov- 
ereigns and to become the servants of a servant. 

Tlie alternative to this degrading course, is to be 
found in depriving the Executive of all motive for ac- 
quiring an impro})er influence over the Legislature. 

" To effect this, nothing in my opinion i» necessary 
but to re-establish the principles upon which the ad- 
ministration was once conducted with a single addi^ 
tion of limiting the service of the president to one termc 
A condensed enumeration of whtit I conceive these 
principles to have been, is given above. And I think 
no one can doubt, that, if faithfully carried out, they 
would be effectual in securing the independence of 
the Legislature, and confining the connection between 
it and the Executive, to that alone which is warranted 
by a fair construction of the Constitution. } can con- 
ceive of but two motives which could induce a presi- 
dent of the United States to endeavor to procure a 
controlling influence over the Legislative body, viz. — 
to perpetuate his power by passing laws to increase 
his patronage— or to gratify his vanity, by obtaining 
their sanction to his schemes and projects for the gov- 
ernment of the country ; and thus assimilating his 
situation to that of the limited monarchs of Europe. 
The principles above suggested, would effectually 
destroy any disposition of the person elected by the 
combined votes of the opposition, to place himself in 
either attitude. Retiring at the end of four years to 
private life, with no wish or prospect of any ''son of 
his succeeding,'' legitimate or adopted, he would 
leave the government as prosperous and pure in it& 
administration, as when it j)assed from the hands of 
the great "Apostle of Democracy," to the Father of 
our Constitution. 

"To the duties which I have enamerated, so pro- 
per in !ny opinion to be performed by a President, 
elected by the opposition to the present administra- 
tion, (and which are, as I believe, to be of constitu- 
12 



126 



tional obligation,) I will add another which I beliefc 
also to be of much importance. I mean the observ- 
ance of the most conciliatory conduct towards our po- 
litical opponents. After the censure which our friends 
have so freely and justly bestowed upon the present 
Chief Magistrate, for having, in no inconsiderable 
degree, disfranchised the whole body of his political 
opponents, I am certain that no oppositionist, true to 
the principles he professes, would approve a similar 
course of conduct in the person whom his vote has 
contributed to elect. In a Republic, one of the surest 
tests of a healthy state of its institutions, is to b<". 
found in the immunity with which every citizen may, 
upon all occasions, express his political opinions an<l 
■even his prejudices, in the discharge of his duty as an 
elector. 

" The question may perhaps be asked of me, what 
security I have in my power to offer, if the majority 
of the American people should select me for their 
Chief Magistrate, that I would adopt the principles 
which I have herein laid down as those upon which my 
aflministration would be conducted. I could only an- 
swer, by referring to my conduct, and the disposition 
manifested in the discharge of the duties of several 
important offices, which have heretofore been confer- 
red upon me. If the power placed in my hands has, 
on even a single occasion, been used for any j)urposft 
other than that for which it was given, or retained 
longer than was necessary to accomplish the objects 
designated by those from whom the trusts were re- 
ceived, I will acknowledge that either will constitute 
a sufficient reason for discrediting any promise I may 
make, under the circumstances in which 1 am now 
placed, 

" I am, dear sir, truly yours, 

" W. H. HARRISON. 

*' To the Hon. Harmar DK>fKy." 



LIFE OF HARRISON. 

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Uj^" Tl'e most standard American periodicals, and Bkiuii- 
wood, thj ablest of the foreign reviews, pronounce these 
the two best works on this couutry ever published. 

CHARACTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

as displayed in bis own v, kitings^ by T. Dwi^ht, author 
of History of Hartford Convention. 

AMERICAN SWINE i3REEDF^^ v H. VV. 

Ellsworth. 

GOOD HOUSEKEEPER, by Mi-j Hale,— 2000 
of this work were sold in three weeks. 

BEET SUGAR, by David Lee Child. 



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